Adoption rates falling

[Jasmineskye]

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/adoption-rates-in-freefall-after-court-ruling-leaves-children-languishing-in-unsuitable-homes-10245614.html

I wondered what people's thoughts were on this.

Personally, I can't help but feel very uncomfortable about forced adoption. I realise it's a very contentious subject.

The article above however strongly seems to imply or suggest that social workers are tiptoeing around the subject.

This is an area of interest to me and I wondered what other people's thoughts were on it.

clicky link

I'm a foster carer and I don't see children being left in unsuitable homes because of this ruling. They are generally being moved to extended family rather than being adopted, which didn't used to happen as much.
The economic cuts however are meaning that social care thresholds are changing for the worse - children in our area are not being taken on until problems are complex, and the shutting of childre's centres means less support for families on the cusp of social care.

As for 'forced adoption', I can't think of a child I have looked after who was wrongly put for adoption. I can think of many who have been returned home to come back junto care very damaged and with bleaker futures than if they had been permanently removed much earlier :(

It is extremely difficult to remove a child from their parents unless there is an obvious significant injury that wasn't accidental. The children who are neglected/ emotionally abused are often brought into care much later and can be very damaged - difficult to collect the evidence that a court will accept. Unfortunately those are the children who are too old for adoption and remain in care / return to their families with long lasting consequences. The lucky children are the ones whose older siblings have been affected and by the time they are born the birth parents have not made any significant changes - they go into care early on and are adopted young.

Nobody feels 'comfortable' about adoption, 'forced' or otherwise - it's horrendously sad and a traumatic loss for the children. (I am an adoptive parent.) It shouldn't happen unless necessary, but when it's necessary, it should happen.

There is a push to place more children who can't stay with their birth parents within the extended family. Good enough kinship care has to be a better option than adoption outside the family - again, where this is possible.

But in reality, it's hard to talk about whether or not this development is positive without taking into account how well it is being managed by resourced, effective and highly skilled social workers.