A recent survey reveals an 6% decrease in the adoption rate in Kent in the last two years. While children waits in foster centres most genuine parents interested in adopting blame the long and complicated process of being approved to become adoptive parents.
With 4,655 children in the Adopted Children register following court orders, the figures of completed and successful adoptions continue to drop. It should come as no surprise that the children most sought by adoptive families are really young. Almost 60% of children adopted in 2009 were aged between one and four, compared with 15% of children aged 10 and over. Most of the children in the Adopted Children Register following court orders were born outside marriage.
Ruth Pack, social worker at Ashford Adoption Team, explained the process through which a family can adopt a child. “The process has two stages the assessment part and the matching part. In the first part we try to evaluate the family, give them as much information as possible and decide whether they are suitable and determined to receive a child in their care. After they are approved by a panel, they enter the matching process. This part depends on the availability of a child suitable for the family.”
Mrs Pack emphasised the fact that the parents are given chances to back out of the project every few weeks and with more and more information about what they should expect if they are chosen as possible parents. “It is important that they know what they’re getting themselves into. They need to have real expectation of what it’s going to be like,” added the social worker
“It is not something they should enter lightly. They need to be motivated, to accept the child for who he is.”
Assessing the parent or parents usually takes around 8 months. Though it seems a long time, Mrs Pack says it essential to prevent cases in which the adoption is not successful and the child’s placement is even further delayed.
Mrs Jane, who asked us not to reveal her surname, said: “Me and my partner are now waiting to be approved by the panel. It’s been a long run so far and it’s not over. But I can understand why they need so much time to check everyone. Plus it gives you as a future parents the time you need to get accustomed to the idea that this is happening and you will finally be a parent.”
Nowadays there are less children to place, but also less adoptions happening. In the 1970s there were 21,495 adoptions in England and Wales. Following the introduction of legal abortion in 1967, this number hit a rapid decline in the children available for adoption.
The Act suffered several changes throughout the years, but in 2005 the Adoption and Children Act was implemented, modernising the legal framework to include as possible parents single people and same-sex couples.
