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Virtually all literature about birth parents of adopted children has focused on mothers. In this pioneering study, Gary Clapton gives us a fresh perspective: he recounts the experiences of thirty birth fathers separated from their children at birth. Discussing different notions of fatherhood, such as biological paternity, social fatherhood, sperm donorship and the 'father figure', this informative book - the first on birth fathers in adoption - brings new light to issues such as the decision to give up a child for adoption, the child's desire to find his or her birth parents, and the facilitat

Since 1998, the Scottish Government has periodically issued guidance for child protection practice. This has grown from seventy-seven pages to two hundred and seventy pages in the latest draft iteration –  The Draft National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland (2020). This review of the Draft Guidance takes a rare, because critical and problematising, look at a policy document intended to influence social work practice with children and families. The review points to omissions, questions inclusions and looks at the ways that the Draft Guidance seeks to claim our attention for some matters and not others. With a focus upon appearances and the author's impressions, close reading of text and language usage, the review offers strategies for critical reading of policy documents.

This paper reviews what we know about the experiences of adopted people who discover in later-life that they are adopted. It begins by discussing how and why various facets of the adoption experience have come to the fore over the 20th and 21st century time span of contemporary adoption. The paper concludes with the fact that research on the late discovery of adoption is in its infancy. It also points to parallels that will exist for people who have been conceived by anonymous donation and raises additional areas for possible research.

With the benefit of an anthropological attention to the importance of 'things' and the relations between ourselves and things ('artefacts'), this paper gives attention to the Social Work File. Despite the rise of electronic recording, social work archives remain full of thousands of files that are increasingly accessed, especially by those who have been in care, and physical file-keeping remains a regular feature of practice. There is already a body of literature relating to the information in social work files, however this paper shifts the focus from this to the nature and role of the File itself. 'Hidden in plain sight' but laden with meaning and capacity, I identify the little we know already about the file. The various ways files and their authors and subjects, can interact are explored together with the file's symbolic properties and the power held by the file's owner, and the ability of the file to 'other' its subject. Whilst we understand that the practice shapes the file, how might the file shape practice?

This paper revisits a topic only briefly raised in earlier research, the idea that the grounds for fatherhood can be laid with little or no 'hands-on' experience of fathering and upon these grounds, an enduring sense of being a father of, and bond with, a child seen once or never, can develop. The paper explores the specific experiences of men whose children were adopted as babies drawing on the little research that exists on this population, work relating to expectant fathers, personal accounts, and other sources such as surveys of birth parents in the USA and Australia. The paper's exploration and discussion of a manifestation of fatherhood that can hold in mind a 'lost' child, disrupts narratives of fathering that regard fathering as 'doing' and notions that once out of sight, a child is out of mind for a father. The paper suggests that, for the men in question, a diversity of feelings, but also behaviours, point to a form of continuing, lived fathering practices—that however, take place without the child in question. The conclusion debates the utility of the phrase "birth father" as applied historically and in contemporary adoption processes.

There has been a number of studies on the outcomes of adoption reunions, most of which have focussed on relatively 'fresh' reunions. Very few studies have looked at long-term outcomes. Fewer still have discussed reunions and kinship with controversy over firstly, the longevity of reunions, and secondly, what such reunions might engender regarding the relative kinship statuses of adoptive and birth families. This paper critically discusses the existing literature on reunions and kinship, and then reports on the long-term outcomes of 200 'matches' on the Adoption Contact Register for Scotland between 1996–2006, presenting qualitative detail from the 75 respondents who completed questionnaires and sent in stories. The paper invites us to think about how adoption can form an adoptive family and deform a birth family, and how adoption reunions re-form both and everyone included. However, it will especially focus on what a coming together of two people separated by adoption means for the way that they frame their relationship with each other and those around them.

In the light of increased attention to the role of social work in UK adoption practices, this article takes a 'turn to language' and examines the neglected field of the words and phrases commonly used in the adoption process. It subjects these to a critical scrutiny and suggests that the vocabulary employed contains inaccuracies, euphemisms, misnomers and aspirational promises and carries implications that limit options and determine outcomes. The article provides other examples from social work practice with children and families and concludes that a critical approach to a profession's everyday language use can uncover how power is exercised.

The waiting rooms and areas of general practice (GP) health facilities are places that nearly all of us will find ourselves in but the waiting experience is under-explored. What happens to our sense of self when we move between the outside world where we are citizens and these spaces where we become patients-in-waiting? I begin with what has been written about waiting in general and in health waiting areas in particular. I then discuss a photo-documentation study of twenty-two GP waiting rooms in Edinburgh, Scotland and explore the questions that arise from the resultant images.Examples are presented that illustrate the unique place of the waiting room in the patient journey between the outside world and the encounter with their doctor. Examples are given of both calm-inducing and unsettling elements. Potentially disempowering processes are identified occasioned by the waiting experience and the issue of the transition in sense of self is raised. I conclude by pointing to other waiting areas and places where such dynamics and processes might be more acute.

This paper traces an awakened interest in Scottish fathers and fathering alongside a UK-wide increase in awareness of the value of the positive involvement of fathers and the importance of encouraging this in family services. It contrasts cultural stereotypes with historical and contemporary realities; and discusses efforts to shift attitudes and practices in Scottish central and local government that marginalise fathers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the obstacles to furthering inclusion of fathers in family policy and services.

This article explores the neglected subject of birth certificates, their meaning and value. The author makes a case for enhanced attention to the birth certificate in general but especially in cases where information about the father has not been entered. It is argued that rather than 'father unknown' being recorded, 'father unregistered' would be invariably more accurate. The conclusion addresses policy and practice implications for the various professions involved during the birth and registration process and also for children and family and adoption practitioners.