An end to adoption delay benefits all concerned
John Freeman
Friday, September 2, 2011
When I became a director of children's services, adoption was new to me. I spent time with social workers and a family court judge, and met several families going through the process. I was forcibly struck by the incongruity between the genuinely good intentions of all the professionals concerned and the lived experience of families and children.
Taking a child from its birth parents and placing it with other parents is a serious step. The state must consider all those concerned, starting with the best interests of the child. Before a decision is made, everyone must be certain that the proposed adoption is right for the child.
In my experience, all the professionals were struggling to make sure they were doing right by the child and its family. The social workers were often working on the cusp of trying to keep a birth family together and making the decision to split the family because it could not be saved. Finding the best adoptive parents was always a challenge. The judge was doing his best to make sure that the evidence was sound and the social workers had jumped through the right hoops. But what prospective adoptive parents experienced was excessive bureaucracy, interminable delay and stress, while the children suffered major uncertainties at a critical period in their lives.
In the simplistic media analysis, neither social workers nor the family courts can win. Either they are "tearing families apart" or they are "leaving children to be neglected and abused".
Recent reports from the government's adoption adviser Martin Narey for The Times lack some rigour and initially underplayed the role of family courts. But his first two conclusions - that a child's interests must come before the rights of the birth parents and that delay is damaging for neglected children - are right on target.
There can never be a magic bullet. Adoption is, after all, a serious step for all concerned. But the child's interests must come first and delay must be reduced.
John Freeman CBE is a former director of children's services and is now a freelance consultant. Read his blog at cypnow.co.uk/freemansthinking
