2009 campaigning and lobbying (England)

Please find listed on this page, details of Adoption UK's 2009 campaigning and lobbying in England.

DECEMBER 2009

Presentation to MPs on Failing to Intervene

Adoption UK gave a presentation to MPs, peers and members of the Adoption and Fostering All Party Parliamentary Group at Westminster. The presentation tackled the effects of failing to intervene soon enough in children’s lives, the realities of adoptive family life and the need for high quality adoption support services for adoptive families.

Adoption UK's Chief Executive was accompanied by two adopters, who provided powerful and compelling cases studies on the damage and delays experienced by their children, and the consequences of these acts and inactions, and the long-term effects on the children and their adoptive family.

NOVEMBER 2009

Adoption pay/leave

Adoption UK drew attention to disparity between adoption pay/leave and maternity pay and leave, by responding to a consultation by the government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Download the response below:

Additional Paternity Leave and Pay consultation - Adoption UK response

OCTOBER 2009

Openness and transparency in family court proceedings – Schools and Safeguarding Bill

Adoption UK has joined an alliance of children’s, families’ and legal organisations opposed to the Ministry of Justice’s plans on media access/reporting restrictions in family court proceedings.

Adoption UK's Chief Executive also attended the first meeting of the Children’s Commissioner’s Advisory Group on this matter, which is planning to carry out research into children’s views on the proposals.

It followed a September meeting at the Ministry of Justice, with the Briitsh Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) and the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA), for a preview of plans to introduce new legislation in the next parliamentary session (starting in November 2009) to change the current reporting restrictions and allow media access to, family law cases. This would mean allowing media access to private (e.g. divorce cases) and public law family cases (e.g. care and adoption proceedings), and allowing accredited journalists to report on currently confidential reports and findings.

The Government argues that the media should be able to attend court proceedings as a proxy for the public and to provide accountability for a system that was suffering from loss of public confidence – a response, in part, to media reports suggesting the care system was operating a secret, target-driven operation to remove children from their birth families and place them for adoption.

Adoption UK has concerns about confidentiality in the adoption system: social services, the health system, the police, the courts, and others, offer numerous ways of revealing the identity and location of adoptive placements. The charity is concerned that opening up care and adoption proceedings will increase the chances of this happening, not simply through the reporting of court cases, but that the information either becomes available or easily identifies children and families (particularly in local and ethnic minority communities) and is passed on by word of mouth. For adoptive parents caught up in public law proceedings, should their identities and family locations be revealed, there is a real risk of the new adoptive family being destabilised.

Revised National Minimum Standards for Adoption Agencies and Adoption Support Agencies

The government’s Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has published a consultation on the above, which closes on 17 December 2009. Adoption UK will be responding in due course.

Choice for Families: Additional Paternity Leave and Pay: Consultation on Draft Regulations

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published this consultation, which closes on 20 November 2009. Although not an issue expressly covered by the consultation, Adoption UK will be using its response to request that the disparity between adoptive parents and pregnant/expectant mothers in relation to adoption and maternity pay and leave be addressed. The lack of an equivalent to maternity allowance for self-employed adopters will also be raised. For further information or to contribute to this work, please contact Director, Jonathan Pearce.

AUGUST 2009

Adoption UK worked with the DCSF, and BAAF and the CVAA, about the department’s research report on ‘Adoption and the Interagency Fee’. The report found a significant difference between the true costs of placing children for adoption and what local authorities will pay to voluntary adoption agencies for the placement and support of those children.

JULY 2009

Adoption UK's Chief Executive worked with the DCSF’s ContactPoint team in trying to work out the best way to handle adopted children’s records for the new government database that, in time, will contain the contact details of all children in England.

He attended the Early Adopter Focus Group in Windermere, Cumbria, on 1 July 2009, speaking with the regional ContactPoint Officers who are involved in the north-west pilot. He outlined Adoption UK’s concerns and the issues for adoptive families, and has been in recent discussions with the DCSF about how it will work for families once the database is fully operational, including suggestions on relevant publicity material for adoptive families

JUNE 2009

The final Stage 5 report of the review panel for the Sexual Orientation Regulations and the Catholic adoption and fostering agencies has been submitted to the Prime Minister. It highlighted that since the introduction of the Sexual Orientation Regulations in April, one of the thirteen agencies has closed and two more are planning to do so in the future.

MAY 2009

As part of Channel 4’s season on the care system, representatives from Adoption UK took part in a debate at Channel 4 studios.

Adoption UK's Chief Executive and the policy advisor, Lynda Gilbert, gave evidence to the Conservative party’s review of adoption policy, led by shadow minister for children Tim Loughton MP.

They raised four key areas of adoption policy:

1. More adopters needed to parent traumatised children from the care system – Adoption UK recommended making recruiting adopters a national priority, ensuring adoptions are fully supported, and establishing a ‘central clearing house’ for potential adopters whose interest in adoption is dismissed by local agencies exercising ‘local discretion’

2. Improving adoption outcomes - to prevent adoptive placements breaking down, Adoption UK suggested early decision-making and action, including court processes, accurate assessment of children’s abilities and developmental needs and high quality support to adoptive families

3. Improvements to adoption support - access to well-funded and knowledgeable adoption support services, better joint working between social services, health and education authorities and across authority areas, more educational support, including giving them the same status as looked after children

4. Local authority funding - if funding for support travelled with the child in the care system, there would be more efficient use of public funding, decision-making would be made genuinely in the interests of the child, rather than due to financial considerations or constraints, and out of area placements would not be blighted by funding issues.

APRIL 2009

An article on an evaluation of Adoption UK’s flagship training programme ‘It’s a Piece of Cake’ has been published in the latest edition of Adoption and Fostering journal. The article highlights how the award-winning training course reflected on Adoption UK’s reputation as a dedicated and exemplary adoption agency. Download the article below:

Cake Journal Article

MARCH 2009

All Party Parliamentary Group on Adoption and Fostering (Westminster)

Adoption UK's Chief Executive attended the March meeting, which heard from Judge Donald Hamilton on his experiences as county court judge on adoption. Jonathan raised issues on the wide range of threats to the confidentiality of adoption.

National Adoption Register

A meeting of the National Adoption Register in England and Wales’ Advisory Group (of which Jonathan is a member) took place, to review the Register’s work and provide advice.

Following controversial media coverage of a story about adopting after bereavement, Jonathan was interviewed on Talk Sport Radio and Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour.

FEBRUARY 2009

Ministerial meeting

Both as Chair of the Consortium of Adoption Support Agencies (CASA) and Chief Executive of Adoption UK, Jonathan Pearce met the Minister responsible for adoption and fostering at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Baroness Delyth Morgan. The meeting aimed to raise the profile of adoption support issues at government level, including the needs of adoptive families and birth families, as well as the profiles of Adoption UK and CASA. Issues covered include:

The need for the system of adoption support to take the next steps in its development, moving towards meeting families’ expectations and actually providing support services, not just assessments.
The need for additional funding, expertise and capacity for adoption support services within local authorities.
Adopted children’s needs are not recognised or prioritised in education services, or in CAMHS.
The fragility of the independent adoption support sector, which receives no statutory funding and is not properly involved in local authority commissioning frameworks for adoption support. The voluntary sector ends up funding adoption support services out of its own charitable reserves when these should be funded by central or local government.
The minister and her civil servants accepted the points made, and asked her civil servants to consider what further action to take. Possibilities include:
The Department working more closely with the key organisations (e.g., Adoption UK, BAAF, Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies and CASA) to address these issues, including promoting the benefits/outcomes of adoption support to local authorities.
Guidance around the education system is soon to be revised – this could be an opportunity to ensure adopted children are included in the guidance, alongside references to looked after children.