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Leading article: Slow progress on speeding up adoption
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-slow-progress-on-speeding-up-adoption-7547328.html?origin=internalSearch
Saturday 10 March 2012
Nobody could really want to see "young lives wasted", so David Cameron
was on safe ground yesterday when he called for the adoption process
to be speeded up, particularly with regard to mixed-race and black
children.
Those involved in the system, however, could be forgiven for waiting
for the warm words to turn into clear action before celebrating. After
all, the rhetoric rehearsed by Mr Cameron has been heard before - and
the arguments in such a complex area are more nuanced than a simple
must-do-better.
The Prime Minister is right that every effort should be made to end
the glacially slow progress of the average adoption, and to abolish
the practice of making children wait for their racial backgrounds to
be matched. The stark fact that white children are three times more
likely to leave care through adoption than their counterparts of other
ethnicities tells the tale. And pity the social worker who is expected
to find a willing couple of, say, mixed Armenian and Nigerian descent.
Modern society has, moreover, shown itself to be largely willing to
accommodate difference. The difficult days of one black child in an
otherwise white rural primary school are almost completely behind us.
While it would be naive to suggest that racial harmony reigns supreme,
prospective adopters in most British towns and cities will be
introducing a child into an integrated, mixed community.
More important, racial difference can be overcome far more easily than
other difficulties, such as the after-effects of sustained neglect or
abuse. It is these hidden traumas that are behind many of the one in
five broken adoptions, and they increase exponentially the longer the
child is left with the damaging birth family.
To remedy the current situation, the burden of proof must shift away
from prospective adopters proving they are the perfect match. Instead,
feckless birth parents must prove that they can and will improve
before being allowed to remain in charge of their children.
The latest government measures are to be applauded, insofar as they
focus on an issue too long neglected. But they are, by themselves,
unlikely to be enough. And attention must be sure to remain on the
ultimate goal - fewer children waiting - rather than on adding yet
more paperwork to a system already mired in complications.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-slow-progress-on-speeding-up-adoption-7547328.html?origin=internalSearch
Saturday 10 March 2012
Nobody could really want to see "young lives wasted", so David Cameron
was on safe ground yesterday when he called for the adoption process
to be speeded up, particularly with regard to mixed-race and black
children.
Those involved in the system, however, could be forgiven for waiting
for the warm words to turn into clear action before celebrating. After
all, the rhetoric rehearsed by Mr Cameron has been heard before - and
the arguments in such a complex area are more nuanced than a simple
must-do-better.
The Prime Minister is right that every effort should be made to end
the glacially slow progress of the average adoption, and to abolish
the practice of making children wait for their racial backgrounds to
be matched. The stark fact that white children are three times more
likely to leave care through adoption than their counterparts of other
ethnicities tells the tale. And pity the social worker who is expected
to find a willing couple of, say, mixed Armenian and Nigerian descent.
Modern society has, moreover, shown itself to be largely willing to
accommodate difference. The difficult days of one black child in an
otherwise white rural primary school are almost completely behind us.
While it would be naive to suggest that racial harmony reigns supreme,
prospective adopters in most British towns and cities will be
introducing a child into an integrated, mixed community.
More important, racial difference can be overcome far more easily than
other difficulties, such as the after-effects of sustained neglect or
abuse. It is these hidden traumas that are behind many of the one in
five broken adoptions, and they increase exponentially the longer the
child is left with the damaging birth family.
To remedy the current situation, the burden of proof must shift away
from prospective adopters proving they are the perfect match. Instead,
feckless birth parents must prove that they can and will improve
before being allowed to remain in charge of their children.
The latest government measures are to be applauded, insofar as they
focus on an issue too long neglected. But they are, by themselves,
unlikely to be enough. And attention must be sure to remain on the
ultimate goal - fewer children waiting - rather than on adding yet
more paperwork to a system already mired in complications.