chapter six: adopters service and support
This chapter sets out how the Government will:
• support local recruitment activity to find suitable families for looked after children;
• find a child a family through a national system where it has not been possible to do so locally;
• improve the assessment process and its image to encourage more potential adopters to apply; and
• provide proper support for all those involved in adoption, including adopted people, adoptive families and birth families.
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What prospective adopters can expect from the adoption process, as set out in the National Standards
Pre-assessment, prospective adopters will be given full written information on:
• the needs of children currently waiting to be adopted;
• becoming an adoptive parent, covering the nature of the task and the adoption process;
• the assessment criteria;
• the timescales for the process (see paragraph 6.19).
And will:
• be treated with respect and in a non-discriminatory way;
• undergo a fair and transparent assessment process, which is comprehensive, thorough and fully explained;
• receive an explanation of the need for thorough checks and enquiries of them as prospective adopters and their household;
• be kept informed of progress throughout;
• receive a copy of their assessment report, and comment, and attend the part of the adoption panel that relates to their application to be an adopter.
Post-assessment, the prospective adopters will be given full written information on:
• how a suitable match will be identified;
• their right to make representations, and, if necessary, complaints;
• adoption allowances.
And should have:
• awareness training about the needs and wishes of the particular child(ren);
• open discussion about how best to achieve links with birth families or friends;
• an assessment for post-placement support, and access to a range of support.
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6.1 The needs of the child are at the centre of the process of adoption. However, to deliver for children, the Government must also consider the needs of adopters. The draft National Standards set out a better deal for adopters, so that it is clear what they can expect, both pre- and post-assessment (see Box). The Government is currently consulting on introducing paid leave from work for adoptive parents (see paragraph 6.25).
6.2 The new Standards for fairer, faster, and more transparent assessment procedures will bind on adoption agencies who approve adopters for overseas adoptions as well as adoptions of looked after children. So people adopting children from overseas will benefit from this improved assessment service in the same way as other adopters.
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Intercountry adoptions
During 2000 over 350 applications have been made for overseas adoptions, up from 280 in 1999. Applications are made to a range of countries. Most are to China, but other major recipients of adoption applications have been India, Guatemala, Romania and Thailand.
Councils, and voluntary adoption agencies approved to undertake intercountry adoption work, provide information about overseas adoption procedures, offer counselling to those wishing to adopt a child from overseas and assess applicants' suitability to be adoptive parents to the same standards as for adoptions of looked after children.
The Adoption (Intercountry Aspects) Act 1999 provides for the first time a statutory basis for the regulation of intercountry adoption. The 1999 Act enables the United Kingdom to ratify the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption. This is essentially a framework of minimum standards to make sure adoption is in the best interests of the child and no profit is made from the process. It is intended to introduce Regulations under the 1999 Act and ratify the Convention on 1 January 2002. Draft Regulations will be consulted on in the New Year.
The Government have already implemented part of the 1999 Act, putting a stop to independent social workers carrying out privately commissioned home study reports. This means that all prospective overseas adopters must go through the same process and be assessed to the same standards as those adopting children from the UK.
The Government's action to speed up assessments, give prospective adopters a right to an independent review and to improve post-adoption support will benefit those adopting children from overseas as well as those adopting children from the care system. And, although the National Adoption Standards have been drafted to apply to children being adopted from the care system, the Government will continue to work with the Expert Group to develop a set of standards appropriate to intercountry adoptions during 200102.
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Recruitment of adopters
6.3 Councils and voluntary adoption agencies have developed considerable expertise in recruiting adopters at a local level, to meet the needs of the children in the area who are waiting for adopters, and they must continue to recruit effectively. The funding that the Government is making available to councils via the Quality Protects grant may be used to support recruitment activity.
6.4 At a national level, the Government can support this work, by spreading information about the sorts of children waiting to be adopted, and the people who can meet their needs, so that people coming forward to adopt do have a full understanding and reasonable expectations (see Box). The Government can also spread information about the assessment process to address some of the myths about it. Whatever is done nationally will build on what works locally, and draw on the evaluation of the recent national foster care recruitment campaign.
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People waiting for adoption39
• An overwhelming 89% of adopters are white couples.
• One in five children with an adoption plan are from black or minority ethnic backgrounds.
• Black children wait on average five months longer for placement than white children.
• Mixed-race children wait on average eight weeks longer for placement than white children.
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6.5 The Government will continue to support National Adoption Week, as a way of publicising adoption and finding more families for children who are waiting to be adopted.
Finding families nationally
6.6 The Government has asked councils to provide information on the number of children and prospective adopters who have been waiting more than six months to be matched, to find out if there is any potential for finding families from around the country for waiting children40.
6.7 The Government has accepted the PIU report's recommendation to establish a new Adoption Register, which initially will cover England and Wales, to tackle delays in finding suitable adoptive placements for children.
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"Prospective adoptive parents who also happen to be Armed Forces personnel have had very real difficulties because of the lack of a National Adoption Register...high mobility and frequent moves between local authority areas has meant [they] have found it very difficult to maintain a place on local authority registers."
Ministry of Defence response to the PIU report
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6.8 The Register will provide a national infrastructure for adoption services. It will hold information on approved adoptive families and children for whom adoption is the plan. This information will be used to suggest families for children where a local family is either not desirable or cannot be found within a reasonable period of time.
6.9 Councils will be required to place details of all children waiting to be adopted and approved adoptive families on the Register. They will need to obtain the consent of the children, subject to their age and understanding, and families before doing so. The Government will also encourage voluntary adoption agencies to make full use of the Register.
6.10 Adoptive families will be placed on the Register as soon as they are approved for adoption, and children when the plan for adoption is made. This will enable the Register to produce non-identifying data on the characteristics of the two groups, and the success of the matching process.
6.11 Following the initial placement of a child or family on the Register for information purposes, social workers will be given an agreed period of time to find a family or child locally. This period may be extended for adoption agencies involved in local or regional consortia arrangements.
6.12 At the end of this agreed period, or immediately where finding a family locally is not in the best interests of the child, the Register will be used to suggest matches between children and adoptive families. A team of staff with social work expertise will offer advice on these matches, which will then be considered locally by the children and families' social workers.
6.13 The Government asked for expressions of interest for the operation of the Register in November 2000, and plans to award the contract in spring next year. The Register will be up and running by the end of July 2001. The Government will continue to develop the details of how the Register will function during the tendering process.
6.14 The Government will initially establish the Register under existing powers, using statutory guidance to ensure compliance, but will legislate to underpin the Register on a statutory basis. This will help it to expand and develop in the future.
Welfare and heritage
6.15 Children's birth heritage, and religious, cultural and linguistic background are all important factors to consider in finding them a new family. The Department of Health circular LAC (98) 20 states that the best family for a child will be one that best reflects their birth heritage, and all councils should be proactive in monitoring their local population of looked after children to enable them to recruit permanent carers who can meet their needs. However, the child's welfare is paramount, and no child should be denied loving adoptive parents solely on the grounds that the child and the parents do not share the same racial or cultural background.
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"All children need a family, but identity and culture are also important. A white family with a black child should have a responsibility to help the child know their history and to try to make the child's culture accessible."
A black adopted adult41
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Assessment
6.16 The Government will clarify and change the assessment process in line with the National Standards, so that people understand what is happening at each stage of the process and why.
6.17 In seeking a new home for looked after children, their welfare and safety must be put first, and thorough checks and enquiries made in relation to all those who may care for them.
6.18 The draft National Standards set out that adopters have a right to a clear and thorough assessment, which involves the whole family, and takes account of heritage and cultural factors. They also provide for adopters to receive full information about assessment criteria. The assessment process needs to be thorough to assure the safety of the child, and to assess the potential parents' ability to meet the child's needs. However, it should not be judgmental in its consideration of potential adopters.
6.19 Prospective adopters can wait up to a year between their initial enquiry to the adoption agency and the start of the process of assessment their follow-up interview or preparation group42. The average length of time taken between receipt of an application and approval is nine months, although it can be much longer. The Government plans to shorten the time taken for the whole assessment process, and the draft Standards set out guide timescales for each stage (see Box).
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Timescales for adopters set out in the National Standards
• Adopters should receive a written response to their initial enquiry within one week
• Within two months of their enquiry, they should attend a follow-up interview or preparation group
• A decision about whether they are suitable to adopt should be made within six months of the receipt of a firm application to proceed.
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Checks
6.20 One of the reasons for delays in the process is difficulties in obtaining criminal record checks on prospective adopters. The new Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is being created to provide a system for vetting those who work with children. In planning the new Bureau, the Government has given priority to the protection of children. Information about those working most closely with children will start to become available in summer 2001.
6.21 The CRB will simplify, and thus speed up, the vetting process. The Bureau will be expected to operate to exacting service standards including delivery times. This will mean that suitable potential adopters can be approved more quickly.
Approval criteria
6.22 The Standards will address the concerns about approval criteria by making it clear that people will not be automatically excluded from adoption on grounds of age, health or other factors, except in the case of certain criminal convictions. These factors will be considered, in terms of their ability to look after children in a safe and responsible way, as part of the whole picture. In the end, it will be for the courts to decide whether the proposed adopters are suitable.
Independent reviews
6.23 The Government will legislate to revise the review mechanism for assessments, to establish a new independent system. Following the recommendation of the adoption panel, prospective adopters will be told if the agency plans to reject their application to adopt, and will have the right to a fully independent review of their case. An independent body appointed by the Secretary of State will convene a review panel to look at all the evidence again, and make a new recommendation to the agency. The agency, which is the body responsible for the placement, must take account of this new recommendation before making its final decision.
6.24 In 2001, the Government will also carry out a fundamental review of the assessment process and the operation of adoption panels, including consideration of streamlining the assessment of 'second time around' adopters, to explore what improvements could be made, with a view to implementing these changes during 2002.
Adoption leave
6.25 The Green Paper Work and Parents Competitiveness and Choice (www.dti.gov.uk/er/review) published on 7th December 2000 asks for views on introducing a right to adoption leave paid at the equivalent of flat rate (currently £60.20 per week), and for the same length of time (currently 18 weeks), as Statutory Maternity Pay, for one parent of an adopted child. This option, if supported as a priority in responses to the consultation, would give one parent of an adopted child the right to the same amount of leave as a biological mother, leaving the parents to decide which of them would take this leave.
Supporting adoptive families
6.26 Better, more comprehensive post-placement support will help improve the success of adoptive placements.
6.27 To support the better deal for adopters, the Government will introduce new legislation to:
• give all families adopting children, especially those who have been looked after, a new right to an assessment by their council for post-placement support. They will be able to request an assessment at any stage after the placement has been identified.
• place a clear duty on local social services authorities to provide post-adoption support, including financial support, planned jointly with local education authorities and the NHS, and any other relevant agencies. This support will be available from the time a placement is made, for as long as it is needed.
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Brighton and Hove social services department have a joint attachment project with health and education, in which a multi-disciplinary therapeutic team based within child and adolescent mental health services provides a range of assessment and therapeutic services to local adoptive parents with children who have difficulties in forming relationships.
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6.28 Support services will be designed to promote the success of the placement, and should therefore meet the needs of the adopted children and their new families, for as long as they need help. Families will be able to ask for help if they start to have difficulties after adoption.
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Devon has a post-adoption policy approved in 1997. This provides for plans presented to adoption panels to include details of arrangements for offering the support that is considered necessary to promote the success of each proposed placement, together with confirmation that the necessary resources would be committed. Procedure documents give staff guidance about writing these plans, how to obtain financial agreement and information about the kinds of services to be offered as circumstances require.
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6.29 There will be a new framework for post-adoption support services, which will meet needs which are not met in any other way, and which are specific to the placement (see Box).
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Examples of post-adoption support
• Counselling for the child to help them explain their circumstances
• Support for adoptive siblings in coming to terms with a new brother or sister
• Short-term domestic help, to enable the adoptive parents to spend more time helping the child settle in.
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6.30 Looked after children who are adopted and their new families will have a keyworker, identified by the agency, to help them access services. If the family want help, they can use the keyworker as a 'gateway' or 'a route through the maze', and to help with co-ordination. The keyworker would not necessarily have to be a current council social worker, but someone who can help the family access all services.
6.31 Post-adoption support can be provided directly by the adoption agency or the agency might arrange for someone else to provide it. Figure 2 shows a model of a comprehensive post-adoption support service, from the initial call for help, through the council's services to other services such as support groups, NHS help and education services. The PIU report, and anecdotal evidence to the Department of Health, indicate that a single contact point and a dedicated team may be the most appropriate model for provision of these services.
Figure 2 Example of a comprehensive post-placement and post-adoption support service
Adoption allowances
6.32 One way in which support may be provided is financially, in the form of adoption allowances. The Government will introduce new legislation to set out a new legal framework for adoption allowances, to establish that they are:
• for adopted children and their new families;
• for needs specific to adoptive families;
• to help the placement to last;
• for needs which cannot be met elsewhere;
• flexible to meet immediate, ongoing, and future needs;
• fairly awarded, taking into account the family's ability to meet the needs of the child financially.
6.33 This new framework will be fair and flexible. Councils will be able to pay adoption allowances as a one-off payment, as a time-limited payment, or as an ongoing payment. They will also be able to use them to help families to meet new needs that emerge after the adoption order has been made. The Government will amend regulations to ensure this is possible. The box below gives some examples of needs which might be met by an adoption allowance.
6.34 The Government recognises that, for example, adopting large groups of brothers and sisters will put pressure on a family, as there will be a sudden large increase in expenditure. There may therefore be a case for helping such families through adoption allowances, and details of how this should be taken into account will be set out in the new framework.
6.35 The current system of means tests is unfair and varies across the country. The new framework will set out a more consistent approach to means testing. However, in future, more services will be provided as post-adoption support, so families will have to meet fewer needs out of their own pocket.
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Needs which might be met by adoption allowances
• One-off payments might cover an extension to the house or a larger car if the family was adopting a large group of brothers and sisters.
• Time-limited payments might cover the cost of, for example, counselling, if the NHS could not meet the need locally, as in the Direct Payments scheme.
• Ongoing payments might cover the costs of travelling to visit birth families.
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6.36 The Government will also review how adoption allowances are treated within the tax and benefits systems, to ensure that, where appropriate, this is consistent and reflects our objective to help children grow up in a stable family environment.
Education
6.37 Not all adoptive parents are familiar with the current education system. They may struggle to cope with the difficulties of a child who may have problems being admitted or settling in to school. When a child is placed with a new family in preparation for adoption, the placing local social services authority should, if the new parents want, help them to work with the local education authority to provide the child with a school place.
6.38 Schools and local education authorities should be flexible in working with the new families of looked after children placed for adoption, to ensure they enter appropriate schools, as part of the new start the Government believes they are owed.
6.39 Support will be available for looked after children placed for adoption and their families, as part of schools' pastoral care approach. This will help children settle and provide advice to adoptive parents. In addition, adopted children may receive additional support from teachers designated to address the needs of looked after children. The family should ask the school for help if they want support. They may, however, want as few people as possible to know about the child's adoption, and the school must respect this.
6.40 Approaches to learning and aspects of the curriculum can present difficulties for pupils whose life experiences are different from those of most other children. This is constantly borne in mind by teachers and schools in relation to race, gender, sexuality and disability. They must be equally sensitive in dealing with aspects of the curriculum on family values and experiences that are likely to either re-kindle distressing memories or 'put the spotlight' on a child who has been adopted.
Supporting adopted people
6.41 Adopted people may need help within their family, as set out above, but may also need help in addition to this. Adults who were adopted as children should also be able to access help and support if they need to do so.
Links with birth families
6.42 Links with their birth families are very important to children. Supporting birth families, including keeping them fully informed through the adoption process, from before adoption is identified as the plan, can make the process much easier for children. To avoid conflicts of interest, the Standards set out that birth families should be in contact with an independent support worker, and not the social worker who is working with their child.
6.43 The draft Standards also state that a child's needs to maintain links to their birth family including parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters and other significant people should always be considered, and that where appropriate, the local social services authority should make arrangements to meet the lifelong needs of the child.
Finding out about family history
6.44 All adopted people should be able to find out about their family history if and when they wish to do so. The draft Standards set out that birth families should have the opportunity to tell their story. The child will then be able to find out about their parents' views, when they want and need to do so.
6.45 The Government will legislate to set out what should be in the agency files to which an adopted person will have access, and the circumstances in which they may have access to that file and to information from their court files.
6.46 The PIU report recommended that bodies other than approved voluntary adoption agencies should be allowed to provide birth records counselling for adopted people. The Government will legislate to allow this. Only organisations specifically approved to provide this counselling will be able to do so, along with voluntary adoption agencies as before.
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