Finding Home: 100 Years of Adoption in Wales

This year marks one hundred years since the Adoption of Children Act first created a legal framework for adoption in England and Wales. Over the last century, thousands of children have found permanent families, and adoption itself has changed enormously as our understanding of childhood, trauma, attachment and family life has evolved.

Jonathan and Rebecca Thomas go on a deeply personal journey to meet the people who shaped their own journey to adopt. It all began when Jonathan heard an interview on BBC Radio Wales more than a decade ago. It was with an adoptive father, Arfon Jones, speaking about the joy adoption has brought to his family. Jonathan returns to meet Arfon 14 years later to reflect on the significance of that interview.

Rebecca explores the remarkable changes in adoption over the last century with solicitor Becki Thomas, who was herself adopted as a baby. Together they examine how adoption has evolved to a system that places the welfare, identity and life story of the child at its heart.

We meet Pat Norbury, who was adopted in the 1950s. Raised in a loving family, Pat nevertheless carried unanswered questions throughout her childhood. She shares how meeting her birth mother brought healing and understanding, and why she feels giving children the chance to learn about their birth story is so vital today.

Lastly Rebecca meets foster carer and adoptive parent Sian Edwards, whose Christian faith and commitment to vulnerable children has shaped more than two decades of fostering and adoption. Sian explains how therapeutic parenting has transformed the way she supports children who have experienced early trauma, and shares moving stories of the breakthroughs, trust and relationships that have grown over many years of compassionate care.