ADOPTION COMMENTARY

Ups and Downs

Many in the adoption community will welcome the announcement from the Chinese Centre of Adoption Affairs that the recent restriction on the number of adoption applications has been removed. With the bureaucratic backlog overcome, a semblance of normality can return, at least until we know what will happen beyond November 2003. Single applicants, incidentally, are restricted to 8% of the total and must not be aged 50 or above, nor gay.

Rumours that Romania might reopen its door for intercountry adoption in the first quarter of 2003 have not come to anything. Meanwhile, with less than three months notice, Vietnam suspended UK adoptions from the start of the year. This will continue until a formal agreement is in place between the two countries, but since discussions did not appear to have started ahead of the ban, this could take some time. Even less notice was given for Thailand's ban which runs for the whole of 2003, apart from applications for special needs children.

These unpredictable changes all point to a key reform the UK Department of Health should be considering. The present need for potential adopters to commit to a specific country early in the home study process should be relaxed, as this is quite unnecessary. The current requirements make changing your target country very difficult. Given the vagaries of source countries, this can cause anguish and loss of time and money when documents have to be revised and panels re-applied to. Adoption preparation classes and the home study process almost never include any country-specific input: couples have to provide that for themselves. The process is aimed at reassuring the social worker and the adoption panel that applicants know what they are doing and have some grounding in the country concerned. So all the concerned parties should be much more flexible about country choice. As a minimum, there is no practical justification for requiring couples to commit to a specific country until the final stages of the home study.

Better Late...

Before Christmas I reported the UK government's plans for the long-awaited final implementation of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. Regulations will be issued to define the Act, and supporting guidance will be published. These measures will thoroughly revise the framework for both domestic and inter-country adoption, completing the replacement of the 1976 Adoption Act.

A key aim is to speed up the process of moving the UK's many children in care into adoptive families. Another is to ensure that adoption leave and pay for inter-country adopters reflect domestic practice, with all adopters in employment being eligible for 26 weeks of paid leave and 26 weeks unpaid. There is also a duty on local authorities to provide adoption support services for all adopters, with £70 million of extra funds of over the next three years. Not least, there will be an independent review mechanism for prospective adopters who feel that they have been turned down unfairly.

The intention was for this new system to be up and running from April, but the Department of Health now thinks this is unachievable. The regulations and guidance are still scheduled for March, but the new services themselves will be introduced in October 2003, thus allowing councils to gear up appropriately and, as the DoH has it, "hit the ground running". After 26 years, perhaps another 6 months to get it right is worth the wait.

Little Sister?

At what age should adopted children be told about their roots, and how is this best approached? This topic is keenly discussed at AFAA seminars in groups covering explaining and exploring adoption. The answers are always as unique as our children of course, and there is no formula that fits all families.

This question is of particular interest for adopters from China, who often have little background information on their children, and may be fortunate even to learn their birthplace. China adopter and academic Kay Johnson researched the circumstances of Chinese people who had abandoned their children. Her fieldwork covered 237 families, using a questionnaire and interviews. The main findings are that virtually all children abandoned came from married couples, that 90 per cent of them were female, and that 82 percent of these abandoned children have sisters. If this sample is in any way representative, then most children adopted from China will have older siblings left behind, and virtually all will have married birth parents.

These results, and their significance for adoptees, are discussed in the article by Beth O'Malley at www.rainbowkids.com/303foundfacts.htm. She takes the view that the best age to share this information with children is perhaps 9 or 10. Younger children will not understand the subtlety of "maybe" or "probably" having an older sister, while it is important to put these ideas across well before "the turbulence of adolescence". This material may help China adopters to reduce some of the uncertainty about the missing background of their children, and will also fuel debate about what to tell children and when.

(Personal views by Andrew Gibbons )

A C Menu * Ups and Downs * Better Late... * Little Sister? *

Personal views by Andrew Gibbons.

Andrew Gibbons
chairman.afaa@pobox.com

Please note that views expressed in these articels are not necessarly those of the Editor or the Webmaster or of the AFAA Committee.

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Last modified: 11 August, 2003