Opinion: Vox pop - Should local authority adoption targets bescrapped?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Conservative Party's Commission on Social Workers published its recommendations for reforming social services last week (CYP Now, 17-23 October). Among its proposals is the phasing out of adoption targets.
YES - Jon Davies, chief executive, Families Need Fathers
Any child-focused charity such as ours needs to be concerned about such targets and the unintended effects they might have.
Without open processes we cannot know whether the cases we hear about through the grapevine are exceptions or the rule. Certainly the courts and Cafcass (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) need more resources, but the biggest advance would be to open up the family courts to public scrutiny and some of the abuses which can arise from bodies striving to meet such targets will surely evaporate. Secrecy can lead to complacency.
NO - David Holmes, chief executive, British Association for Adoption & Fostering
They shouldn't be scrapped but the single factor driving decision-making in adoption must be that it is in the best interest of each individual child.
The government target in England (to increase the number of adoptions by 40 per cent) - that ended in 2006 - undoubtedly helped focus minds and resources. Despite some councils choosing adoption as part of their own local targets, figures show adoptions fell by 12 per cent last year and the trend is set to continue. Targets may not be the answer, but it is crucial we continue to prioritise adoption.
YES - Tim Loughton MP, shadow children's minister
One of the recommendations of the Commission on Social Workers, a Conservative party policy group, was to abolish specific numerical adoption targets. I warned against these targets when the bill introducing them first came through Parliament.
They lead to perverse incentives for local authorities to boost their adoption figures in order to meet their targets, rather than judging each child on a case-by-case basis. It has also resulted in "child snatcher" allegations against social workers, when babies and small children are removed from their birth parents in marginal cases.
YES - Julia Mansfield, head of service (operations), After Adoption
Local authority adoption targets have now served their purpose in giving greater emphasis to the use of adoption as the outcome of choice for children in need of a secure family life who cannot remain with their birth families.
Figures peaked in 2002 at 4,200 adoptions per year but since this time there has been a sharp decline to 2,900 in 2006, showing that local authority targets are no longer effective. Special guardianship orders now offer an alternative route to securing family life, which may be preferable for some children who formerly would have been placed for adoption.
