Adoption – is it time to widen the search?

For many couples and single people, adoption is the only way to have a child. As a society, people are starting to have children much later in life than earlier generations which is impacting upon the ability to have children naturally. There are also many couples and single persons who wish to extend the family they already have.

Despite high numbers of those interested in adoption, there remains a national shortage of adopters; demonstrated by the increasing number of banners and billboards advertising for potential adopters in our local areas.

We often see celebrities in the press who have adopted children from abroad, but the reality is that there are thousands of children here in England who are waiting to be adopted, waiting to find a ‘forever family’.

National statistics confirm that of 31 March last year, nearly 7,000 children in England alone were waiting to be adopted, waiting in foster care as they are unable to return to their parents or wider family members. The inability to return to their biological family may be as a result of a Court decision or parental decision.

Foster care can be a very uncertain time for children as there is no guarantee that a child can remain in one foster placement throughout their childhood.

Many children will see frequent changes of placement; for sibling groups, changes can be made separating them from their brothers and sisters.

Remaining in long term foster care also means that the child retains ongoing involvement with a variety of professionals with regular meetings to consider their care and placement. It must be said, however, that for some children, remaining in foster care long term is in their best interests and provides them with the optimum life chances. Foster carers are well trained to meet the bespoke needs of children within their care.

If a Local Authority has the necessary Court orders to allow them to place a child in their care for adoption, the Authority and Adoption Agencies will try and ‘match’ such children within their area, with approved adoptive parents/persons within the locality.

Sometimes the matching process is difficult because of the age, sex and any disabilities of the child. Such difficulties can be heightened if the children are part of a sibling group and are being placed for adoption together.

Similarly the family environment of the proposed adoptive parents may not be suitable for every child who is in need of a ‘forever family’. The matching process takes time and very careful consideration to ensure that a proposed placement is right for the child and family. However, time works against the process and the reality is that the older the child, the more difficult it is to find an adoptive placement.

When a Local Authority is unable to identify a suitable approved adoptive placement within the area, the search for a family for that child will widen to include other Local Authority areas and Adoption Agencies up and down the country. Despite the breadth of the UK and the number of agencies involved in trying to place children, it is not always possible.

Against that reality, is it time to extend the searches and allow such children the opportunity to find ‘forever families’ abroad?

It is accepted that some countries – Ireland for example – are in an entirely different predicament to England with the numbers of approved adopters outweighing the number of children in need of a family.

Whilst the idea of placing children outside the jurisdiction may be controversial to some, is it time for this to be used as a further opportunity for some children in finding a forever family of their own?

Should we now be exhausting all options for the thousands of children waiting to be claimed as part of a family?