Letter: A backward step for adoption

Sir: Your Legal Affairs Editor correctly reported that a possible reform of adoption law was driven by the Prime Minister's wish to curb the influence of social workers ("Adoption law to curb political correctness", 28 December).

It is also connected with the increasing privatisation of social work resulting in local authorities often being forced to use private agencies, many of which pay well below an acceptable minimum wage.

It is easy to criticise the "political correctness" of social workers, but they are subject to extremely stringent legal controls.

In relation to adoption law, it is not social workers who make orders but the courts. At all stages birth parents and relatives are fully involved. To seek to privatise this skilled and sensitive work because of a tiny number of reported cases is highly regrettable.

To return to the myriad private adoption agencies that used to exist may well result in a much less rigidly controlled system.

PHILIP J MEASURES

Correspondence Secretary

The Association of Professional Social Workers

Uttoxeter, Staffordshire