British Association for Adoption and Fostering

The first conference of Societies Registered for Adoption was held in 1949 and the Standing Conference of Societies Registered for Adoption was formed in 1950. In 1958 the Adoption Act transformed the legal framework for adoption services giving local authorities the power to act as adoption agencies. In 1965 the British Adoption Project was launched, a four year project to help find new families for non-white children and stemming from this the Adoption Resource Exchange was set up in 1968. In 1969 the Standing Conference of Societies Registered for Adoption was represented on the Houghton Committee to consider legal policy and procedure on adoption. In 1970 the Standing Conference of Societies Registered for Adoption became ABAA (Association of British Adoption Agencies), and in 1975 ABAA became ABAFA (Association of British Adoption and Fostering Agencies). In 1978 Adoption Resource Exchange was formed by: Lucy Faithfull, M M Carriline, Louise Hancock, R Hughes, Mary Sugden, Anna Martin and Joan Lawton, with registered offices at 40 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ. ABAFA and ARE began to share premises at Southwark Street in March 1980, and in November 1980 they merged to form the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering. The company changed its name from British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering to British Association for Adoption and Fostering in 2001. A full account of the history and development of BAAF and its predecessor bodies can be found in file BAAF/120