chapter one: our vision permanent, secure family life
1.1 As a society, we should be aiming to provide opportunities for all. That is the Government's vision for this country. It is a vision in which all children, regardless of their background, should be able to share. Stable families and strong communities are the foundations for the fair society the Government seeks to create.
Children and families
1.2 Children rightly want to grow up in a stable loving family. Whatever their circumstances, the majority of children in this country are fortunate to be able to grow up in a family, which has the best chance of ensuring they have both the values they need and the opportunities they deserve.
1.3 Most children will grow up within their birth families. That offers them the best prospects of succeeding as individuals, as family members, and as members of the wider community.
1.4 Not all children, though, are able to live with their birth parents. A range of different circumstances may apply to render that impossible. In the vast majority of cases, this is unfortunate. In a small minority of cases, it may be the best thing for the child.
1.5 But whatever the reason, the needs and merits of such children are no different to children in birth families. Their needs and desires are indeed exactly the same. Children unable to live with their birth parents still need a stable and loving family to provide them with the security and love through childhood that they both require and deserve.
"I felt like my life was starting again" Ahmed*
1.6 For children in public care, their safety must be the first priority. No action must be taken which places the safety of looked after children in jeopardy. But after ensuring that their safety is secured, society as a whole has a clear responsibility to provide these children with permanence a safe, stable and loving family to support them through childhood and beyond and a fresh start as quickly as possible.
"I felt safer" Zoe
Children and public services
1.7 The Government has set itself ambitious goals for:
• modernising key public services, including health, education and social services
• giving new opportunities to those who have been marginalised and excluded, including looked after children, and eradicating child poverty by 2020
• working in partnership with local government and the voluntary sector to make Britain a fairer society, with opportunities for all.
1.8 The Government's aim is to develop modern, high quality public services that are responsive to the needs of different groups and individuals in society. It wants to see public services deliver what people want and deserve. For too long, public services have been underinvested in, and have failed to provide the vital services people want. The Government is reversing that long pattern of underinvestment, and modernising public services. Reform and new investment will take time to put in. Turning round public services cannot be done overnight. But a good start has been made, and the Government is determined to see public services provide properly what they are there to deliver.
1.9 Public services, including children's social services, should act not just as a safety net against failure, but as a springboard to success. Social services for children can help in promoting independence as well as providing proper protection. They can help improve health and well-being. They can offer new choices and new opportunities for young people. They can, especially, help confront the social exclusion and deprivation visible in too many communities.
1.10 The Government is focusing strongly on supporting families and children, especially those in greatest need, and actively promoting opportunities for everyone. It wants children who are looked after by local councils to have the same chance of a good start in life as other children. Social services must provide children in care not just with care, but with a chance to belong, to have a stake in society, and to get on in life.
1.11 Services for looked after children, along with those for all children in need, are already getting a major boost through our £885m Quality Protects programme. But the experience of children in the public care system waiting to be adopted is too often damaging.
Children and adoption
1.12 Adoption has traditionally been a means of providing a permanent alternative home for some of the children unable to return to their birth parents. Research shows that children who are adopted when they are over six months old generally make very good progress through their childhood and into adulthood and do considerably better than children who have remained in the care system throughout most of their childhood1. These children are also better adjusted than children who grow up in institutions. Adoption of older children has positive, though to varying degrees, effects on all aspects of their development.
1.13 The Government believes that more can and should be done to promote the wider use of adoption for looked after children who cannot return to their birth parents. But if this goal is to be achieved, the process must be made as efficient and effective as possible, to meet children's needs.
"I think it's better to have adopted parents than no parents at all. It gives children more chance of a better life" Nazeema
1.14 Many adoptions are very successful. Children and adopters forge new and lasting bonds in a new and permanent family, after councils and courts have worked successfully together to place children in their new families. Many people involved in trying to secure successful adoptions which are of benefit to looked after children and their new families are dedicated in their efforts to secure good outcomes. Adoption rightly has a good record in delivering a stable, permanent new family for looked after children who cannot return to their birth parents.
1.15 But for too many children, in too many cases, there are clear problems in the way the adoption process now operates. There are widespread variations in practice between councils and between courts. There is too much delay for children. There are unacceptable delays and difficulties for adopters. Children involved in the process are suffering unnecessarily.
"I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait...no news...not for 5 years..." Clare
1.16 Delays in reaching decisions about children's futures are compounded by frequent moves from one foster placement to another, making it harder for children to develop and settle down. These delays are damaging and the consequences of this damage are far-reaching not just for the children concerned, but also for society far more girls leaving care are pregnant or have babies than other girls the same age, and 39% of male prisoners under 21 have been looked after at some stage. This is not a failure of the child in care, but of the system of care. And children have a right to expect better.
"I would have liked to have understood more" Darren
1.17 Too often adults forget how things look to children. They think about systems, what is logical, and what are acceptable timescales from an adult's point of view. Adults forget how time appears to pass more slowly to children. Adults often tend no longer to remember the confusion of entirely new issues and the worry of questioning those who are grown up and knowledgeable. In short, existing services do not always match the vision for modern public services.
"Try to listen to what we want instead of guessing. You don't know us." Jason
Adoption: a vision for the future
1.18 The Government wants to change this, and will overhaul the adoption process so that it makes more sense, moves more quickly and delivers for children the outcome they want: a new family.
1.19 Adoption services must be focused on the fact that every day without their new family can make a difference to the future development of these children. There is a need for change at every level covering best models of child care practice, improving consistency in council performance as well as changes to the legal framework. Through all of these changes, the aim is to reduce avoidable delays so that the child can enjoy the prospect of a new start in life.
1.20 In future, the experience of adoption services will be one where:
• The focus is firmly on the needs of the child. Though the Government will establish new standards and new processes for all those involved in adoption, including adopters, councils and the courts, the interests of the children involved will be paramount
• Highly skilled professionals lead a quality service delivered to national standards. Instead of too many of those involved in helping children find safe, permanent new families being under-trained and over-exposed, the experience of adoption will be one where staff are properly trained and properly supported, so that they can provide the best possible service to the children involved
• Focused effort goes into finding a permanent new family for looked after children waiting to be adopted. In some areas, adoption has been given a lower priority than taking action to safeguard children in difficulty. While child safety must remain the overriding priority, the need to find safe, permanent families for children is an intrinsic, long-term element of the process of giving children a safe, fresh start and a new opportunity
• Courts deal with all cases involving children in an efficient and child-centred way. While courts rightly place fairness in dealing with all cases as a priority, the pace of legal processes and at times their lack of easy comprehension can seem to run counter to dealing with the complex emotional issues which often surround looked after children in a way which is speedy and clear. So the focus for adoption will be to make the legal framework and the legal process as swift and as transparent as possible, and in a way which ensures that the interests of the children involved remain paramount
• A range of potential adopters is welcomed and assessed efficiently in an open and fair way. For those considering adoption or wanting to adopt, the process of adoption can seem to place all but insurmountable hurdles in the way. Children's safety must remain the first duty of the adoption process, and accordingly potential adopters have to be carefully and thoroughly assessed. But in doing so, the adoption process will carry out those assessments in a way which has both fairness and transparency at its centre
• Children and their new families have easy access to post-adoption support. Though the commitment and effort to make adoption work in a new family is primarily for the new family itself, the role of others in the adoption process should not end when children and their new families are brought together. Too often in the past families have only been reconnected with the adoption process when problems sometimes severe arise. Instead, families forging a new family unit with an adopted child should be able to access support, if they want it, to help make sure that the process of creating their new family works as well as it possibly can.
Adoption: a new approach
1.21 Meeting this vision will require a new approach to adoption:
• Children. Children will be the paramount priority of the adoption process. The Government will establish for children a full range of options for permanent families. It will cut down delay by setting clear timescales. It will improve planning and decision making by providing better guidance. It will provide better post-qualification training for social workers.
• Adopters. The Government will encourage adoption by encouraging adopters. It will support local recruitment activity to find suitable families for looked-after children. It will find a family for a child through a national system where it has not been possible to do so locally. It will improve the assessment process and its image to encourage more potential adopters to apply. It will provide proper support for all those involved in adoption, including children being adopted, adoptive families and birth families.
• Councils. The Government will improve the performance of councils on adoption. It will issue guidance to councils to improve financial planning. It will identify more quickly good and poor performance. It will spread best practice. It will improve joint working between councils and with voluntary adoption agencies.
• Courts. The Government will improve the efficiency and clarity of the legal aspects of adoption. It will make better use of available expertise, and improve expertise through training. It will improve case management. It will establish new support services. It will speed up the process by setting timescales and improving monitoring.
"It's a long progress but it's worth it in the end" Roisin
Conclusion
1.22 This new approach amounts to a radical change in the public care system, stemming from a vision of high quality public services that offer new opportunities and high quality outcomes for looked after children, based around meeting their individual needs. The new approach will replace a system that too often has only worked for the short term, and which all too often has failed too many children. The Government will adopt a radical new approach which will provide for looked after children what they need most: permanent, secure family life.
"It may be hard, emotionally, being adopted but it's worth it in the end" Charlie
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