Freedom of information act 2000...re adoption waiting list

[Heb66]

Hi all,
I am helping a friend research her deceased fathers adoption along analysing her DNA test results.
We are currently on Hackney councils LONG LONG waiting list to be able to gain into her fathers background into the adoption.
Back in 2000 I used the freedom of information act for another matter my question to you all is :-
Can I use the act just to enquire how many families are before us on the list regarding their own adoptions ?
The reason I would like to know is to ascertain if we may go down the private route and pay for our own social worker intermediary , which I have been told we can do to be able to gain access to what information we may be able to learn ?
We know the adoption records are held with the council as we have this confirmed.
Any thoughts ?

[AntonyMMM]

You can submit an FOI request - as it is only asking about number of applications in the queue, I can't see why they wouldn't supply the information.

Her father would have been able to access his own original birth record through the adoptions team at GRO ( https://www.gov.uk/adoption-records). Does she have a copy of that ?

If not, and as he is deceased, she has the right to access his records as a "person with a prescribed relationship", but whether that can also be done just through GRO and without using an intermediary, I don't know. It would be worth ringing and asking them.

[Heb66]

Hi Antony,
Thank you so much for your reply, I will certainly email Hackney council services.
I will also give the GRO a ring tomorrow after I finish work.
My friend has an adoption certificate for her deceased father, it states his adoptive name, date of birth, location where his birth was registered, and place were county and date where the formal adoption took place.
Another quick question to you :-
Would you know if I applied to the register office in Hackney for a couple of possible births certificates of the my friends deceased father, do they allow the facility to cross check the birth date to the one I give them and the one that's on the certificate ? I have DNA surname matches which appear in GRO births for Hackney in 1954., long shot I know but worth a try.
If it doesn't match would they refund my payment ?
I know they used to many years ago, before the days of ordering online.
Any ideas I would be very appreciative.
Many thanks

[AntonyMMM]

You can phone Hackney and ask them - but they don't have to do that type of search for you. It probably depends on how busy they are and how helpful they want to be.

But are you sure the certificate from the adoption register gives Hackney as the place of birth ? It should only give the date and country of birth ...e.g.  "England" or "Wales" (see the example attached). The location of the court granting the adoption order will be shown, but that doesn't have to be the same area that the birth took place in.

[Heb66]

Hi Antony,
I have a CERTIFIED COPY OF ENTRY , it states in the first column date & county of birth of child, it gives date of birth....then handwritten signed...Hackney, sub district Hackney North in the registration district of birth.
It gives the date of adoption order and where it took place. Croydon County Court 27/4/1960, and the the date of entry 10/5/1960.
Obviously I won't publish date of birth but the year was 1954.
So are we presuming he was born in Hackney as previously thought ?
Many thanks again for any thoughts

[AntonyMMM]

Sounds odd - I've sent you a PM

[AntonyMMM]

I checked with a researcher who specialises in adoption cases and she believes that the district of birth was added to certificates taken from the adopted children register at about the end of the 1950s, so the district you have on yours (where the adoption was 1960) as Hackney should be correct.