‘Identity and Belonging in Transracial Adoption and the AFDiT Framework’
Presenter: Dr Tam Cane, University of Sussex
Date: Monday 16th June 2025
Time: 2 – 3:30pm
Location: Lecture Room Glamorgan/S/0.81, Cardiff University
We are delighted to launch our Annual Adoption Lecture 2025. Our guest speaker will be Dr Tam Cane from the University of Sussex, who will present her research on the AFDiT framework – a framework intended to ensure positive identity outcomes for all minoritised ethnic children moving into transracial adoption.
Registration is now open.
Dr Tam Cane is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Care at the University of Sussex. She is a qualified child and family social worker, and her research focuses on reproductive health and adoption practice.
Dr Cane’s work aims to address inequalities and support best practices in the sector. She is the first scholar to examine HIV within the context of the UK adoption system, developing recommendations for more inclusive approaches to HIV. Dr Cane developed the BRAC2eD model to reduce bias in the assessment and recruitment processes for prospective adopters from racialised and minoritised ethnic backgrounds.
Dr Cane also founded the AFDiT framework, which she later co-developed with adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents with experience of transracial adoption. The AFDiT framework was launched in May 2024 with the aim to improve social work practice in transracial adoption and enhance long-term identity outcomes for transracially adopted children. This framework is now implemented across adoption services in England and embedded within children’s adoption permanency records, including the CoramBAAF Child Permanency Records and other bespoke documents recording children’s permanency information.
Among other research, Dr Cane is currently leading an evaluation of the Lifelong Links programme in adoption. This programme supports adoptive families, particularly adoptees, in reconnecting with and maintaining lifelong key relationships following adoption. She is also conducting research on strategies to create and sustain safe spaces for Black children in or transitioning through the care system.
Dr Tam Cane is a Council Member of Nagalro, Chief Editor of the Children and Youth Services Review EUSARF 2023 Special Issue, and a member of the CoramBAAF Research Committee and the Black Adoption Project.
The lecture will be held on Monday 16th June, 2:00 – 3:30pm in Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University. It will be a hybrid event. Please REGISTER NOW to attend in person or online.
