Informal Adoption Limits Are Not The Answer
by Claudia Wood
The minister for fostering and adoption, Tim Loughton, has recently highlighted concerns that local authorities are implementing informal adoption limits. This means children over the age of five are currently deemed ‘unadoptable’.
Of course, it is clear people tend to want to adopt younger children, and that parents find it easier to bond with babies. Councils are also more wary of placing older children with families as the risk of the adoption process breaking down is higher.
Research from Demos’ In Loco Parentis also suggests timelines are essential; and that delays in the process have significant implications for a child’s chance of being successfully placed in a stable placement. Research shows that rates of adoption breakdown increase from 10 per cent for children placed under the age of 10, to 20-40 per cent for those placed when over 10.
Although local authorities do not collect official statistics on how many of their adoptive placements fail, a recent freedom of information request sent to all local authorities by More4 News found that the number of adoptions which have broken down, and children have been returned to care, had doubled between 2005 and 2009. Adoption UK also estimates that as many as one-third of adoptions break down.
One possible explanation for this trend is that the delays in placing children on the adoption register lead to a period of instability, temporary care, or possibly prolonged exposure to abuse or neglect within their birth families. This in turn may lead to a greater risk of emotional and behavioural problems, thereby making the adoption more challenging.
So the evidence suggests it is harder to place, but by no means impossible, to match suitable parents with an older child. After all, children (and adoptive parents) come in all shapes and sizes and councils cannot treat this like a numbers game. They must instead look at each case on an individual basis.
Indeed, increasingly women are giving birth later and people are living longer. We are also seeing more single men and women adopt. So as our demography changes it is totally possible that parents will be happy to adopt a young child rather than a baby.
It will take a lot to persuade councils that lifting this blanket ban is worth doing, as it means more support for the adoptive parents and the child to help keep the placement secure.
In the end, imposing an informal limit on adoptions, even if it is based on a decent understanding of the evidence, is likely to reduce adoption numbers to next to nothing. And that would be a real tragedy.
A Parent
While I have not yet read the full report, the emphasis on how pre-care experiences of childern affect them is long overdue. To compare the outcomes for children in cae, who have experienced appalling abuse and trauma, and many of whom have learning disabilities and long term mental health problems as a result, with the general population is simplistic. Sound-bite statistics frequently give the impression that simply being taken into care is a disaster and the casue of children's problems. The fwe studies which have attempted to compare like with like - ie children taken into care and staying in care, with those who expereinced similar poor family environments but were not taken into care, show that outcomes in terms of health, employment, avoiding crime, drugs and early pregnancy, were better for the in-care group.
I agree that there needs ot be a change of focus to removing children from damaging homes far earlier. Our son had to wait 5 years from the time he first came to the attention of social services, while landlords, teachers, nursery workers, neighbours and health workers reported repeated concerns. Even the conviction of one parent for sexual offences against a child did not result in his removal.
Late adoption is challenging but I am happy to say that the support we have recieved from social workers, school, therapists and local charities has been absolutely excellent. It has enabled our child to grow, thrive and be happy. Adoption is not a cheap option for society - if we really want older children, those with disabilities and emotional difficulteis to have happy homes, we need to support adoptive parents.