The adoption scheme that is flourishing in Harrow

I love spreading news of a family-building scheme that works. Put children who need loving, capable parents together with adults who have love and a nurturing home to share together. It sounds simple, but we know it isn't. As with many other social services in Britain, there is a postcode lottery, meaning that parentless or homeless children in some locales have a better chance of being adopted than a child elsewhere. Statutory guidelines differ, the view of adoption as the best option can vary among local authorities and social workers can dismiss prospective parents who don't "match" waiting children, failing to refer them to neighbouring authorities where they may find a better match.

The Times has gone so far as to call the overall scheme in this country "Britain's adoption crisis;" a result of only 2% of children in care being adopted last year in places such as Croydon, the worst performing council of all in Greater London. "Across England, the rate of adoption has been static for the past four years, with 13% of children in care being adopted annually." That begs the question of what is happening to the other 87% of children who don't have a real home. People who want families have been long put off by how difficult it can be to wade through the challenging bureaucratic tangle of the adoption services. They can face rigourous scrutiny, perhaps warranted, but also negativity, overly strict rules on ethnic "matching," long delays and an overall lack of support.

I was surprised and delighted to hear that my own local council, Harrow, is doing far better than most. According to Rosemary Bennett in The Times, the council that had one of the worst records of adoption in the country is approaching "best" now. The longer a child is in the care of social services, the harder it is to find them a permanent home, the more detrimental to the child's emotional wellbeing and the greater the financial cost to the community. Harrow's record of moving only 2 - 3% of children from care to an aoptive family, as recently as 2005, indicated ineptitude, but credit is due to someone at the local authority for realiing that they needed outside help to turn it around. They brought in 2 social workers and an administrator who were employed by Coram, a children's charity, and instituted controversial, but ultimately successful, systems.

This is what is working here in Harrow:

• The Coram staff work full-time in the local authority, find and assess prospective families, resulting in a pool of approximately 60 adoptive families under consideration at any one time;
• Adoption is considered from the outset, every time a child is taken into care, regardless of the age, race, religion, disability or number of siblings involved;
• The adoption plan is considered simultaneously with other plans which investigate how to support the child within their birth family, so that no time is wasted;
• the decision on whether or not a child should be adopted is taken within 4 months of arriving into care, exceeding the national guideline of 6 months; and
• 100% of those children are actually placed within a year.

Last year 20% of children placed in care in Harrow were either adopted or placed under a special guardianship order. Peter Tolley, service manager in charge of children's placements, said in The Times; "[W]hen these children read their records in the future, we want them to be able to see that every option was considered, that there was robust discussion, and that a lot of time and energy went into making the decision we believe is right for them." This message makes me feel personally very optimistic. Not only will more children be taken into families and private homes, but also that they will have a better understanding of why and how that transition took place, perhaps aiding their sense of belonging. Every child matters, but the longer they are a part of a government "system" and not part of a family, the less they may feel they matter. Their security and sense of personal self-worth are at stake andit is up to us to safeguard them.

Hopefully, Harrow Council will improve even further on their record, with the help of the Coram Harrow Partnership. In the meantime, if you are hoping to adopt, it pays to investigate the record of your local authority. and possibly, to move.

 

 

 

Comments

[Amber]

Stopping in from ICLW. It makes me wonder how similar our adoption situation is here in the U.S. compared with yours. It's terrible to think that such a large percentage of kids never find families! :(

[International Adoption Agencies]

Avoiding in from ICLW. It creates me wonder how identical our adopting circumstance is here in the U.S. in contrast to yours. It's horrible to think that such a lot of children never discover families!