Court Report: Couple wins race discrimination case over adoption block
Coram Children's Legal Centre
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Mander & Mander v Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead & Adopt Berkshire, Case No: C01RG184
In this case Oxford County Court found that a Berkshire-based adoption agency had discriminated against a couple who were denied the ability to adopt because of their race.
Mr and Mrs Mander are British citizens whose parents were all born in India and came here as children or young adults. They identify as part of the wider Sikh community, but are not religious and consider themselves culturally British, while acknowledging their Indian heritage. The Manders underwent IVF a number of times before accepting, in 2015, that they were unlikely to be able to have a child biologically their own, and started to consider adoption.
Mr and Mrs Mander approached Adopt Berkshire but were told that their application to be considered as adopters could not be taken forward because the adoption agency only had white British children available for adoption and already had a surfeit of white British pre-approved prospective adopters who would be given priority in the placement of these children as they shared the same background. After acknowledging that the local and national picture may change over time, Adopt Berkshire wrote that “another option that you may wish to explore is the option of adopting from India…it may ultimately be more likely to enable you to achieve the placement of a young child whose cultural heritage is similar to your own”.
The couple tried unsuccessfully to get the decision reversed by making a formal complaint to their local council and then to the Local Government Ombudsman, before beginning litigation claiming direct discrimination on the grounds of race. Adopt Berkshire’s actions came after significant changes made to the adoption system by the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Adoption Agencies (Amendment) Regulations 2013, which encouraged local authorities to move away from viewing ethnic or racial matching as a primary factor in the adoption process.
Her Honour Judge Melissa Clarke ruled in favour of their claim and found that the defendants had “directly discriminated against the Manders in the provision of adoption services, on the grounds of race”. The law firm representing the couple welcomed the ruling “that eligible adults cannot be disqualified from joining the adoption process because of ‘cultural identity’”.
