BASW unveils Adoption Enquiry report and key findings
‘Enquiry explores the complex realities of adoption for many people’
The British Association of Social Workers has published a UK-wide enquiry on adoption. Led by Professors Brid Featherstone and Anna Gupta, the enquiry took evidence from more than 300 individuals and organisations. These included social workers, birth families, legal professionals, adoptive parents and adults who were adopted as children.
The study allowed for novel approaches to enable people from different perspectives to speak and listen to each other openly and safely. The BASW says that, through this, complex and profound narratives, which are too often silenced within prevailing discourse, have been brought to the fore.
Key findings from the enquiry were as follows:
- Challenging the status quo: It was considered that in England, in recent decades, policy makers had tended to promote adoption as risk free in a 'happy ever after' narrative. The Enquiry heard from a range of respondents across the UK that this is unhelpful.
- Impact of austerity: The researchers found austerity was adding to the "considerable adversities" faced by many families in poverty who are seeking to safely care for their children. Welfare and legal aid cuts had reduced the financial resources available to some, while services designed to help more families stay together and prevent children being taken into care had also been stripped back.
- Human rights: The enquiry found social work's professional ethics were not routinely or transparently used to inform adoption practice and said this area needed further exploration. It heard groups of parents such as birth mothers with mental health or learning difficulties and young parents who grew up in care were particularly vulnerable to both losing their children and not having their human rights respected.
- Importance of social workers: The enquiry found the quality of the relationship between social workers and families was "crucial" to pre-and post-adoption support. However, it warned the pressure of rising caseloads and cuts to services, meant many practitioners felt limited in the time and support they could provide and some families feared their children would end up taken into care if they sought help.
- Support for adoptive parents: There was a consensus that post adoption support needed improving for everyone, with ethical issues raised in relation to adoptive parents being left caring for traumatised children without adequate help. England is the only country to have an Adoption Support Fund, but this was viewed as insufficiently resourced, with the amounts available capped in recent years.
BASW CEO Ruth Allen, said:
"Adoption can be highly successful, providing children with stable, loving homes and adoptive parents with the experience of creating the family they want. Birth families may consent to adoption and recognise the value to their biological child.
"However, the Enquiry explores the complex realities of adoption for many people, particularly in non-consensual adoption, with mixed outcomes and experiences for all involved which raise."
The Adoption Enquiry report and BASW's Response can be found here.
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