the adoption legislation and system in the UK
David Cameron recently made a commitment to radically update and
alter the existing adoption legislation and system. The current
adoption laws and rules are complicated and in practical terms make
adopting in the UK a slow, difficult and often unsuccessful
process.
The statistics show that the number of babies (aged under one)
successfully adopted has drastically reduced from 4,000 in 1976 to
only 60 last year, with an overall drop of 5% in total adoptions,
according to the Department for Education Statistics.
It has been suggested that the drastic decline in adoptions is
linked to the economy and financial uncertainty. This, coupled with
a reduced focus on recruitment of adopters, could explain some of
the decline. However, many believe that the most significant
factors are the barriers adopters have to overcome to enable them
to successfully adopt. The law states that adoption agencies must
give due consideration to religion, race, cultural background and
numerous other factors of significant importance. However, the
statute goes on to state that the paramount consideration must
always be the child’s welfare. Unfortunately, it seems that in
practice, prospective adopters are finding that the factors of
religion, race and cultural background are preventing them from
offering a permanent home to a child in foster care, perhaps
denying the child the chance of a happy, loving family life due to
lack of similarity in colour or background. The investigation
process and role of the social worker in each case has a dramatic
impact, making the adoption rates and chances of successful
adoption from one local authority to another potentially very
different.
By judging a potential adoptive parent as less attractive than a
model/ideal parent, due to factors of ethnic origin, age etc, many
couples (and individuals) are being declined the opportunity to
adopt a child in the UK. In several cases this has sent prospective
adopters oversees to commence an inter-country adoption, which
should not be necessary when the number of children in care in the
UK exceeds 65,500, the highest number we have had since the late
1980s.
Prospective adopters can also be put off by the time it takes to
adopt a child in the UK. Current statistics show that the adoption
process takes an average of two years and seven months to complete,
which is as a result of an unnecessarily long process. By the time
a child has reached the age of four, the chance of it being adopted
is significantly lower, and most children adopted are under the age
of five. The chance of the adoption being successful reduces as the
child gets older, with statistics indicating that as many as 20% of
non-infant adoptions break down, showing that the speed of
completing an adoption is not only in the best interests of the
child in the short term, but also in the longer term in so far as
the likely success of the adoption is concerned.
It is clear that the delays and restrictions on adoptions and
the process itself need review and streamlining. Martin Narey, the
Government’s adoption advisor, is hoping to reduce delays in the
system and to help local authorities improve their practices. The
Family Justice Review aims to tackle delay and bureaucracy issues
within the family court system. Without reform, the children
awaiting adoption will continue to suffer as a result of the delays
and inflexibility of the system. Only change to the process, and
reiteration that the welfare of a child is always paramount, is
likely to lead to a rise in adoptions in this country.
