I have to admit I misinterpreted the title, before I saw the poster.
We waited quite a while for child number 2- but when we went to approval panel it was mentioned that the number of potential adopters had dropped. That was before a couple of judgments in the family court.
HHJ Mumby has said his judgments should not deter children going before the courts for placement orders and to a degree he is right, the right children should not be held back from placement orders because of the wrong decisions by some Local Authorities.
I do think to take a child and raise it as your own- you have to be sure you are absolutely 100% doing what is best for that child. Having children is not a right, but once you have given birth to that child, your rights to that child must be protected until they can be protected no more for the sake of the child- and this threshold is far more tenuous than some people think. The Primal Wound is a good book to read, about that child's bond to it's birth mother that cannot be severed simply by her actions we all know severing that bond causes awful harm to that child-and that harm must be less than leaving the child there.
Yes sometimes LAs wait too long, I am fairly sure for my DC1 the birth mother was allowed to keep going for so long because the CP team had some residual issues about her remaining in her family home for so long and the fall out of her time in foster care.
Decisions are made for lots of reasons- but I do think in cases such as my Dc1 who was eventually removed when a SW who was new to the case took over that fresh eyes need to look at each generation. To achieve that there needs to be more movement of SWs which is hard to do when the profession is under valued.
Adoption cannot be fixed piecemeal the whole process needs to be properly reviewed and looked at as part of a child protection process, and not simply supplementary to it.
I think- not for targets but for success. SWs have seen almost everything at least once before.
Baby Ps mother's prosecution led to a rise in removing of children- and I think Baby Ps trial saved my son's life.
Now Re C-S and other cases will lead to a slowing down of placement orders being granted, until the next Baby P case sadly.
From my prospective what I would be asking for is better protection for adopters once the child has been placed with them- too many of us are being dragged through final rights of appeals, trials to look at the validity of placement orders and although 999/1000 it all comes to nothing, it is a strain for us, a strain we can do without, if we have a child placed, we should be told here you go- we will support you and encourage you and intervene if it all goes wrong- but this child now forms part of your family and no one can change that it has all been sorted out.
On the face of it that would leave too many children waiting for placement whilst legalities are finalized but surely we can tighten the threshold for removal enough that less chances need to be given at the final hurdle.