SAAM
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At SAAM, we believe in the power of lived experience. Every briefing, submission, and publication we create is grounded in truth — and led by adoptees.
This is where we get them telt. From consultation responses to policy proposals, media statements to educational tools — each document reflects the strength and clarity of our collective voice.
All of SAAM’s work is rooted in the original Circumstances and Recommendations paper — a project created by adoptees, for adoptees, in collaboration with birth parents, adoptive parents and professionals across the UK. This foundational body of work shaped our three core rights: Truth, Identity, and Justice.
Below you’ll find a growing archive of our work — all created to inform, advocate, and push for change across the UK.
Browse, share, and use these publications in your own advocacy.
This is how we speak truth to power. Together.
SAAM Submission: Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR)
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Status: Coming Soon
Date: 2026
The Scottish Adult Adoptee Movement (SAAM has submitted a formal human rights submission to the UK Joint Committee on Human Rights concerning adoption law and the lifelong rights of adopted people.
The submission sets out evidence that current adoption frameworks breach fundamental human rights, including the permanent severance of legal identity, denial of autonomy in adulthood, and the absence of effective routes to remedy or redress.
It raises concerns under domestic law and the UK’s international human rights obligations, including the ECHR and UNCRC, and calls for urgent scrutiny of adoption orders as irreversible state interventions imposed in childhood.
👉 Full submission and supporting evidence coming soon.
Developing a Universal Definition of ‘Care Experience’, Incorporating the UNCRC and Equality into Adoption
Status: Submitted (Public)
Date: 01/01/2026
The Scottish Adult Adoptee Movement (SAAM) has submitted written evidence to the UK Parliament’s Education Committee examining how adoption is treated within care, education, and safeguarding policy.
The submission sets out evidence that adoption, while a state-initiated legal intervention, continues to produce lifelong impacts across education, mental health, and safeguarding, yet is routinely framed as private and concluded once an adoption order is made.
It demonstrates that adoption is consistently excluded from care reform, rights frameworks, and policy planning, despite its permanence and the delayed harm frequently encountered by schools, colleges, and support services.
The submission focuses on policy coherence and lived outcomes. It does not seek reform of family law or adjudication of individual cases.
👉 Full submission and supporting appendices available.
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CPA SUBMISSION (Scotland)
coming soon
In response to ongoing failures in child protection frameworks, SAAM submitted evidence to the Child Protection Authority highlighting the systemic exclusion of adopted people from safeguarding, exploitation, and accountability mechanisms.
Our submission sets out how adoption functions as a state-authorised endpoint to safeguarding, leaving adopted children and adult adoptees outside:
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abuse and exploitation frameworks
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statutory oversight and monitoring
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inquiry, redress, and complaint routes
The submission draws on:
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the exclusion of adoptees from the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry
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parliamentary debate on exploitation and safeguarding
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evidence from adoptees denied routes to justice
SAAM calls for adoption to be recognised as a lifelong state intervention, requiring ongoing safeguarding duties and inclusion within child protection frameworks.
👉 Full submission
CPA SUBMISSION (UK)
In response to ongoing failures in child protection frameworks, SAAM submitted evidence to the Child Protection Authority highlighting the systemic exclusion of adopted people from safeguarding, exploitation, and accountability mechanisms.
Our submission sets out how adoption functions as a state-authorised endpoint to safeguarding, leaving adopted children and adult adoptees outside:
-
abuse and exploitation frameworks
-
statutory oversight and monitoring
-
inquiry, redress, and complaint routes
The submission draws on:
-
the exclusion of adoptees from the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry
-
parliamentary debate on exploitation and safeguarding
-
evidence from adoptees denied routes to justice
SAAM calls for adoption to be recognised as a lifelong state intervention, requiring ongoing safeguarding duties and inclusion within child protection frameworks.
👉 Full submission
SAAM Response: Universal
Care-Experienced Definition
Focus: Inclusion of Adoptees in Care-Experienced Policy
SAAM responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on a Universal Definition of Care-Experienced. Our submission made clear: adoptees are care-experienced. We called for legal recognition of adoption as a form of state care, consistent access to support, and inclusion in protections under corporate parenting and equality legislation.
We believe that truth must be acknowledged for healing to begin.
👉 Download the submission or view the dedicated page to
explore the full content of our response.
Adoptee voices, lived truths, and bold recommendations.
As part of Scotland’s process of addressing historic adoption practices, SAAM submitted a detailed contribution to the Government’s Scoping Study. Our submission draws directly from the lived experience of adult adoptees and calls for recognition, redress, and reform.
It outlines systemic failings, long-term psychological impacts, and the urgent need for legal, cultural, and support-based change — including adoptee-led policy involvement.
We believe that truth must be acknowledged for healing to begin.
👉 Download the submission or view the dedicated page to
explore the full content of our response.
The voice of lived experience — in writing.
The SAAM Recommendations document is where the campaign began. Developed by adoptees, for adoptees — and in collaboration with birth and adoptive families — this paper lays out the core concerns and proposed changes needed to protect and uphold adoptee rights in the UK.
It is the foundation of everything we do.
Inside, you'll find clear calls for reform across identity, autonomy, access to records, and legal protections — grounded in real-life experience and human rights principles.
👉 Download the PDF or visit the full page to explore
the recommendations in detail and see how they
continue to guide SAAM's national work.
With Gratitude
SAAM would like to extend our deepest thanks to Paul Brian Tovey — an adoptee and long-time advocate who has worked tirelessly to capture and reflect the lived experiences of adult adoptees in lay survey's.
Paul’s dedication to truth-telling, peer led activism, and mental health advocacy has helped ensure that adoptee voices are not only heard, but honored.
His work continues to inspire and strengthen the movement for adoptee rights across the UK.
In the first UK adoptee-led study of its kind, Paul Brian Tovey worked with fellow adoptee Suzann together they captured the voices of adult adoptees through a lived experience lens — offering insight into the lifelong impacts of adoption, identity loss, and structural exclusion.
Building on this work, Paul later embarked on a global study, reaching beyond UK borders to connect with adoptees internationally. His cross-border research explored common themes of displacement, silence, and resilience shared across diverse adoption systems.
Adoptee Voices
For adoptee voices to be truly respected it will take many,
Adoptees for many years have been making using their voices to bring awareness
to the harms caused by adoption. Below are some of those voices.
Adoptees: the family void in our medical history
At the start of Adoption Week Scotland, Dawn Maclean has been telling healthandcare.scot that people who have been adopted should be entitled to access medical information from their biological family, and how a simple checkbox on medical records indicating that a person was adopted would open the way to addressing a catalogue of problems adoptees face.
When adoption has no happy ending
Garry Sturrock, a Family Law and Child Law specialist with legal firm Brodies, says adoption allows individuals a unique pathway to parenthood, and it can offer children who have had adverse childhood experiences an opportunity to thrive in a loving household.
Nevertheless, in this article entitled The myth of the infallible adoption fairytale ending and reversal of adoption in Scotland, he says, when reflecting on this year's theme, it has to be acknowledged that adoptions in Scotland, at least historically, have not always resulted in fairytale endings for children and families. Garry begins with the issue of forced adoptions in Scotland
Adult adoptees call for care records recognition
A new organisation representing people who have been adopted says plans for a National Care Service for Scotland create an important opportunity for the particular issues faced by adoptees to be flagged on medical and care records for the first time.
Forced adoption: As MSPs wept, a mother forced to give up her baby reveals a lifetime of silent suffering
Too emotional to speak, as politicians wept, a mother made to give up her baby in Scotland’s forced adoption scandal held up signs describing her son as her “gift wrapped in sorrow
Support SAAM's Work
We’re raising funds to support the next stage of our work — from tech and tools to campaign materials and our first national adoptee-led event in November.
Your donation will help us stay visible, connected, and powerful as we fight for adoptee identity, truth, and justice.
🖤 Please support our GoFundMe here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/power-to-adoptees-support-saams-work-for-identity-and-just
Thank you for standing with adult adoptees.
Adoptee Rights UK
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🗣️ Support the Rights of Adoptees – Take Action Now
The Scottish Adult Adoptee Movement (SAAM) is fighting for truth, justice, and lifelong dignity for all adopted people — but we can't do it alone. If you believe every person deserves the right to know who they are, access their full legal history, and be free from lifelong legal fictions, we need your voice.
Here’s how you can support the campaign:
🔁 Share our message
🌐 Spread the word
📝 Write to your elected representatives
📣 Raise awareness
🧾 Support our demand
This is not just about the past. It’s about the legal status,
and human rights of living adults today.
📬 Contact us: scottishaam@gmail.com
📢 Use the hashtags: #AdopteeRightsUK #AdoptionReform #RightToKnow