A huge step forward has been taken in adoption procedures to put the needs of children first. After a tussle with the House of Lords, the Adoption and Children Act received Royal Assent last November, becoming the first major adoption legislation for more than 25 years.
Health minister Jacqui Smith welcomes the measure, which she hopes will ensure a fairer and more efficient adoption service. 'Adoption should be about putting the needs of the child first in the search for a caring loving family. The Adoption and Children Act updates adoption law and provides the firm foundation for better practice,' she says.
'It will underpin our drive to speed up the adoption process and deliver our target for a 40 per cent increase, and if possible a 50 per cent increase, in the number of looked-after children who are adopted.'
Children are put up for adoption if there is no possibility of them returning to their family. The latest figures estimate that 5,000 children in Britain are waiting for a suitable adoptive family. Many of these children have been abused or neglected, or have learning difficulties or health problems. Adoption, the legal transferring of a child from one family to another, gives them the opportunity to start again, but the average time a child spends in care before being adopted is currently two years and nine months.
How long a child takes to be adopted is affected by the child's age and whether they have a disability. Sometimes black children also wait longer because there are fewer prospective black adopters, and agencies attempt to match children with a family of the same race and religion.
Continuing support
'The new Act recognises the reality of what adoption is like,' says Felicity Collier, chief executive of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). 'Adoption used to be almost exclusively infants relinquished by single mothers with little choice because of the stigma of illegitimacy. Now a great many adopted children are older, are from the care system and have been exposed to abuse and neglect. These children have difficulties trusting adults and need a range of support services. This Act gives families the entitlement to receive support and local authorities a duty to provide it.'
Follow-up support needed can range from social work support - including counselling and dealing with challenging behaviour linked to previous abuse or neglect - to financial provision for private therapy and help with a child's education or physical and emotional health needs.
Linda Plummer, national family placement advisor for NCH Action for Children, says, 'Voluntary organisations have always accepted support for adoptive parents as necessary. But this will be taken up in various ways.
We have families we never see again once they have adopted, families who never leave us because the children are so demanding, and others come back when the children hit troublesome teens and are questioning aspects of their identity. Some local authorities have been slower to pick up on the need for support, but it is now underlined in legislation that all local authorities have to do an assessment of support needs.'
The actual needs of the child are now also strongly taken into consideration. 'The most important thing is right at the beginning of the legislation, where it says that the court and adoption agency must take the wishes and feelings of children into account - this has never been stated before,' explains Sue Seabrook, head of adoption at the Children's Society.
'It used to be believed that adults were doing the right thing and didn't need to ask the children - but even small children can say what they do and don't want. It is very important to ask what the children want and children strongly need to have it explained what adoption will feel like for them.'
Under the new Act, child cannot remain in a home where they are being neglected or abused but they have the right to say whether they want to be put up for adoption. Children can also choose to keep in contact with their birth families.
Equal rights
It is hoped that support services will give more people the confidence to come forward as prospective adopters. The Act also aims to widen the range of adopters available. Previously only married couples and single people were allowed to adopt, but now co-habiting couples, including gays and lesbians, are able to adopt.
'It was accepted by all political parties that this was not about gay rights or about the rights of adults, it was about the rights of children to a safe and secure family life,' says Felicity Collier. 'Most importantly, BAAF firmly believes that it will widen the pool of prospective adopters and that more unmarried couples will come forward and apply to adopt because they will be able to share legal responsibility for the child - a very important consideration for any individual making a lifelong commitment to a child.'
Liz Garrett, head of policy at the children's charity Barnardo's, stresses that huge care is taken in approving people for adoption. 'We've placed children with unmarried couples for some time. This does not mean we are not careful about what they can offer to a child. The issue of whether they are married, heterosexual or gay is just one of the number of questions asked. We would not reject someone on the grounds that they were gay, nor would we accept them for that reason. What we need to know is whether they understand what bringing up children is about,' she says.
'We need singles and couples to adopt because many children have had bad experiences and maybe cannot be placed where there are men, for example. We need a diverse range of families to reflect the families in society today, which include 30 to 40 per cent of children growing up in non-married households.'
Before now, unmarried partners had been advised to take out a residence order to give them more rights to the child living with them. Only the legal parent had financial obligation to the child if they were to separate. Now children adopted by unmarried couples will be more secure, in the event that the relationship breaks down, because they will have the same legal connection with both parents. 'It is all about security for the child and this Act makes them legally a family,' says Linda Ms Plummer.
Lifetime commitment
The overwhelming priority of the Act is to get children out of care where they live in residential homes or with foster parents, frequently being moved from place to place. Children who grow up in care are four times more likely to be unemployed, 60 times more likely to become homeless and 50 times more likely to be sent to prison. To be adopted has to be preferable as the child has a better chance to receive security and love, says Ms Seabrook. 'A child in foster care knows people are being given money to look after them and in their mind they feel it is not their real parents. A lot of foster parents are told it is not their role to fight for the child, it's the social worker's job to get better care for the child,' she says.
'Children in foster care don't always get the best deal in the world. I've lost count of the number of times adoptive parents have commented on the child arriving wearing shoes two sizes too small - there is no true attention to detail. The detail of care comes when a child is claimed as their own - "this child is mine forever and I am going to do my best for my child".'
FACTS ABOUT ADOPTION
The children:
* BAAF found that among children who were adopted in 1998-99, 4 per cent were identified as having been sexually abused
* Physical abuse was reported in 6 per cent of the children
* 17 per cent had learning difficulties
* 40 per cent had at least one special need
* The most common reason why the children had entered care was abuse or neglect
The adoptive parents:
* Five per cent of all adopters were single in 1998-99
* Three quarters of the adopters had no birth children, and 20 per cent had only adopted or fostered children, while 15 per cent had birth children but never adopted or fostered before
CASE STUDY: FROM FOSTERING TO ADOPTION
* It took two years for Kate Conner and her partner Harold Maton to convince the adoption panel that they were suitable to adopt the boy they'd fostered since he was seven months old.
'We'd fostered Lee for the majority of his life but when he became available for adoption it took two years and eight trips to the adoption panel before we got it sorted,' says Kate. 'They did not want an unmarried couple to adopt. Questioning was very invasive. We even got asked why we had decided not to be married and whether it bothered our other children.
We came up against overt prejudice and the panel made it clear they did not think it was right that we were unmarried.
'I am all for safeguarding children but we were a secure partnership, we'd been together for almost ten years and were an established family with four children between us. Anyway, what difference is it for the child whether they are adopted by a single parent, divorced or separated? It is all about security and a quality relationship, not a legal piece of paper - just placing children with married people does not safeguard their future.'
Despite being brought up by two parents, Lee, who is now 15, is only recognised as having one legal parent. 'There was no option in law; because we were unmarried only one of us could adopt,' Kate explains. 'We would have liked my partner to be named but we were told that it had to be the mother because if we broke up I should keep him.' To counteract the system Lee legally took Harold's surname, and both Kate and Harold have ensured Lee's financial security by drawing up their wills so all their children receive equal inheritance.
Ten years on, Kate welcomes the change in adoption law. 'There are lots of people who are not able to adopt because they are unmarried or in a same-sex relationship. Lots of these are good families who should and would give children a good life.'
