New adoption guidance should ease the strain

7 March 2011 1 min read John Freeman Social Care Fostering and adoption

The decision that a child cannot remain with his or her birth parents is life-changing. And it is always sensitive and difficult, with some sections of the press talking as though social workers are deliberately and callously ripping families apart.

Of course, the same newspapers are very ready to trumpet the failings of social workers when a tragedy happens. But when adoption works well, and it usually does, outcomes for children are transformed. It is a huge decision, and it is right that there are effective checks and balances.

The new adoption guidance for local authorities amounts to 244 pages and the regulatory framework is complex. For example, it lists 18 ways of committing a criminal offence on adoption procedures. But the starting point must always be what is best for the child. There is always a practical balance between the trauma of loss of contact with birth parents and the benefits of a better home. Stable and loving families come in all shapes and sizes, and I applaud ministers for opening up adoption as far as possible, and in shortening adoption timescales.

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