Adoption UK response to The Times article: Hostility to adoption is ‘letting children down’

30 Aug 2011

The Times: Hostility to adoption is ‘letting children down’. – Adoption UK response

Adoption UK’s Chief Executive Jonathan Pearce said:

“In Adoption UK’s experience as a national membership and support charity for adoptive parents, we see both good and bad practice in the adoption system. However, it is overly simplistic to label the whole system and all adoption agencies as responsible for ‘denying adoption to thousands of children”.

“Adoption UK’s own research and surveys show that many prospective adopters do face long delays in the adoption recruitment and assessment process, which can delay the placement of many children. At the same time, however, many adopters report – about two-thirds by our estimates – report a good service from their adoption agencies.”

“What is clear, however, is that too many prospective adopters are being turned away from the adoption system unfairly or without due cause, for a whole range of reasons. There is a definitely a need to improve the system radically, but part of doing that is recognising the good practice that goes on and ensuring that continues to develop and is mirrored across the country.”

“A big part of improving outcomes for adoption is about ensuring that adoptive families receive high quality, timely and accessible support services to help them address the emotional, behavioural, educational and developmental difficulties of their children, which are a direct result of the trauma of abuse and neglect from their early lives with their birth families.”

“While it is important that children’s race and ethnicity are addressed in placing children for adoption, it should not be the overriding factor. Existing adoption legislation and guidance already makes this crystal clear: race, ethnicity, religion, culture and language are but one set of a number of factors to be considered when placing children for adoption. This is a training and practice issue for some agencies.”

“Race, ethnicity, religion, etc, are important factors in children’s development of their future identity and need to be addressed within any adoptive placement. However, it is more important that children are placed on timescales that meets their needs (so as avoid further harm or damage via delay), rather than on adult timescales that may be excessively concerned about finding the ideal racial/ethnic match.”

“All children who are adopted will have experienced some form of loss or trauma through being separated from their birth families. Many adopted children will have experienced further loss and trauma through their early experiences of abuse or neglect within the birth family, which may have been compounded by numerous moves within the public care system. For many children, this trauma may lead to emotional, behavioural, educational or development difficulties, which may also affect the children’s abilities to form secure attachments with their new parents. Traditional parenting techniques may not work and adoptive parents may need to develop alternative parenting strategies in their role as “therapeutic parents” for traumatised children. It is vital, therefore, that adoptive families are properly supported to address these difficulties.”

“We agree with Martin Narey’s observations in his earlier report in that we should be intervening earlier in children’s lives and speeding up the care and adoption system, but this will not reduce the need for adoption support.

Ends

For further information:

Erika Pennington, Adoption UK – erika@adoptionuk.org.uk or 01295 752960.

Out-of-Office Hours: 07500 968475 Website: http://www.adoptionuk.org/

Notes for Editors:

Adoption UK

Adoption UK is a registered charity (number 326654) and adoption support agency, and was established in 1971.
Adoption UK is the only national charity run by and for adoptive parents. The charity’s aim is to provide and support a self-help network for adoptive parents to explore the unique social, emotional and developmental needs of adopted children and young people and their families. Through this network, Adoption UK also promotes effective learning practice, based on over 35 years’ experience of adoptive parenting, which is integrated with current theories of trauma, attachment and development.
Adoption UK supports parents before, during and after the adoption process
Members have experience of adopting in UK and abroad, from babies and toddlers to teenagers, with a wide range of medical, emotional, physical and learning difficulties.
Membership represents multicultural Britain.
The Online Community launched in November 2003 and won Charity Website of the Year 2004.

Key features include message boards, letters, library of resources, database of real life experiences, special features and daily news. Over 80% of visitors are UK-based however the site has been embraced by people touched by adoption around the world.

Adoption UK offers a range of other services to adoptive families, including: a national telephone helpline; access to local support groups throughout the UK; contact networks; Adoption Today and Children Who Wait magazines, information leaflets and publications; training programmes and courses; and a lending library.
Adoption UK also lobbies and campaigns on behalf of the concerns of adoptive families.

Head Office: Linden House, 55 The Green, South Bar Street, Banbury, Oxon OX16 9AB

Tel: 01295 752240. Helpline: 0844 848 7900.

A downloadable version of this press release can now be found on the Current Press Releases page.