A C Menu * Health and Efficiency * One Strike and You’re Out? * Policy and Practice
Potential adopters who have survived the rigours of a home study assessment may wonder with trepidation how they will fare at the hands of the Department of Health, where their documents are finally assembled, given the once-over and final approval, and despatched to the tender mercies of the authorities overseas. You may be in for a pleasant surprise - a rare phenomenon in inter-country adoption. The DoH service is efficient, and the helpful staff seem well imbued with the service culture (Remember the Citizens Charter?).
It must be said that this was not always so. But credit is due for the great progress that has been made, and the paper-pushing machine currently seems to run very effectively. Complicated procedures can be discussed with experienced staff who can help plan the approach. This is particularly useful when papers have to be shuttled between different destinations, for example with various permutations of translating and notarising.
The entire file assembled by the DoH is referred to as the Home Study. It includes a substantial amount of extra documentation that the applicants do not see, including the DoH’s final endorsement letter, so if you need translations the bills for these will significantly exceed your initial estimates. One reassuring feature is that if the paperwork does have to travel around for translation and notarisation, all covering letters are copied to the applicants by first class post, so you normally know where things are. Those precious documents seem to be treated with due care, although translators are for some reason sent the originals, but are consequently required to send them back "by courier or guaranteed delivery". Finally your dossier is couriered overseas, apparently at the taxpayers’ expense, with the DoH notifying you by letter of the date and signature on delivery. A well-deserved bouquet to Michael Brennan’s team!
* Health and Efficiency * One Strike and You’re Out? * Policy and Practice
Potential adopters who do not survive the rigours of a home study assessment can be in a difficult position. They may of course be treated with understanding and sensitivity, and led into a constructive dialogue which seeks to address and find routes to overcome the difficulties which the social worker and their superiors claim to have identified. On the other hand, they may be treated less sensitively. One such couple wrote at length in the Sunday Telegraph of 8 March 1998 about their unfortunate experiences with Childlink. I have heard other such stories. If you don’t get what you want from whichever agency is doing your home study, such as Childlink or your local authority, there is often no formal machinery for appeal. Given the asymmetric power relationship between potential adopters and these organisations, the general lack of transparent and impartial mechanisms for handling grievances is unfortunate to say the least. Of course, if couples could choose between agencies for their home studies, there might be a lot fewer grievances.
* Health and Efficiency * One Strike and You’re Out? * Policy and Practice
Potential inter-country adopters may draw some comfort from the UK government’s latest policy statement on adoption. Entitled Adoption - Achieving the Right Balance, its 14 pages are targetted at local authority social service departments and adoption agencies and are "intended to bring adoption back into the mainstream of children’s services". It is largely about domestic adoption, but says that ICA "is now a major feature of adoption in the UK", and that "The standards and criteria applied in domestic adoption concerning the assessment of prospective adopters are to be applied to families seeking to adopt a child from overseas".
Since many of the circular’s instructions might be regarded as little more than good practice or sound management, it is arguably a recognition that a significant number of agencies fall well short of such standards. An unrelated BAAF press release shows that the average age of UK children entering ‘care’ is 22 months while the average age for adoptions is 5 years 8 months, so there is clearly room for improvement in one key performance indicator.
While warning agencies to be satisfied that couples are "equal to" and "fully appreciate the implications of" ICA, the circular points out that "It is not acceptable for an applicant to be denied the opportunity to be assessed by an agency on the grounds that the agency does not agree with the notion of ICA or that the applicant does not share the same ethnic or cultural background as children from their country of choice".
It also deals with age, health, smoking, post-adoption support, ethnic differences and many other things. Local Authority Circular LAC(98)20 of 28 August 1998 is a worthwhile source to help in getting a fair deal from your agency. Copies from the Department of Health (fax 01937 845381) or find it at http://www.open.gov.uk/doh/dhhome.htm .
Personal views by Andrew Gibbons.
Andrew Gibbons
chairman.afaa@pobox.comPlease 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: 15 February, 2004