Written evidence from Miss K. Thornton (CFA0096)

HOUSE OF LORDS CHILDREN AND FAMILIES ACT 2014 SELECT COMMITTEE INQURY

Submission of evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Children and Families Act 2014.

By Katie Thornton

I am a 23-year-old Politics and Sociology student who attends Edge Hill University and am a resident of Merseyside, England.

I am passionate about social research and would like to make a submission in response to your call for evidence on the Children and Families Act 2014, which will also contribute to part of my studies on a third-year module.

3. Is the Act enabling faster, more secure and stable adoptions which are in the best interests of the child?

a. What has been the effect of provisions on fostering to adopt?

b. What has been the effect of the repeal of the requirement to consider ethnicity, religion, race, culture and language in England when placing a child for adoption? Are any further legislative or other measures needed to address disparities?

c. What effect has the suspension of the Adoption and Children Act register had on the matching process?

d. Are families receiving the right information, budgets and support to assist them post-adoption?

a. What has been the effect of provisions on fostering to adopt?

A major problem with Fostering to Adopt (F2A) is the anxieties that the carers may face. According to FAMILIESFORCHILDREN.ORG (2022), the process can cause emotional stress because the potential adopters do not know what the long-term outcome will be, in terms of the baby’s future with the family. This is because whilst the child is still under foster care proceedings, the court may well decide the baby’s best outcome is to return to their birth family. Not only this, but the potential adopters must also comply with fostering procedures, for instance, regular visits with the birth family and following special instructions from the birth family like dietary recommendations, which can cause emotional strain (FAMILIESFORCHILDREN.ORG, 2022).

On the other hand, F2A seems to have a positive effect on the children. Should the foster family successfully adopt the child, this prevents unnecessary moves between care for the child; additionally, due to the fact that a baby can be placed with F2A carers at just days old, this allows for early attachment and bonding, which optimises the neurological and physical growth of the child (Nelson, 2022).

Cheruvallil-Contractor, Halford, and Phiri (2022) have written a report which explores the issues around ethnicity, religion and culture and adoption. The report particularly focuses on looked after children who biologically come from Muslim families, as well as Muslim families’ outlook on adoption.

Black and ethnic minority children are amongst those who are likely to spend the longest time waiting for permanent homes, whilst also being most likely to be in looked-after care (HM Gov, 2021, cited in Cheruvallil-Contractor, Halford, and Phiri, 2022). Since the amendment was made to the Children and Families Act 2014 around five years ago (Cheruvallil-Contractor, Halford, and Phiri, 2022), the aforementioned findings of HM Gov in 2021 would suggest a lack of having a substantial effect, because the ethnic minority children are still hindered the most.

One of the findings in the report created by Cheruvallil-Contractor, Halford, and Phiri (2022) is that adopters of ethnic minority did not necessarily care about the ethnicity or religion of a child whom they could potentially adopt, as long as the child would look somewhat similar to their family. For example, in the report, a potential adopter of Latino ethnicity, claimed they would happily adopt a child of different ethnicity and religion, being that they were not so different in features in terms of eye, hair and skin colour, due to fears of standing out.

Another finding from Cheruvallil-Contractor, Halford, and Phiri’s (2022) report, is that there appears to be a negative narrative in the Muslim community around adoption. Whilst, of course, this is not all Muslim adopters, the research showed that generally those who follow Islam disagreed with adoption, because it would be ‘breaking up a family’, and the belief that the children should be with the biological family. Furthermore, the report also showed that social workers lacked an understanding in Muslim culture, and social work is frowned upon by some in the Islam community.

Because of this, it could be recommended that social workers should be required to have a level of understanding of ethnic minorities and other religions and cultures, and there should be an effort to try and engage with the Muslim community more.

c. What effect has the suspension of the Adoption and Children Act register had on the matching process?

The number of looked after children has continually increased since 2010 (NSPCC.ORG, 2021).

The fears around suspending the Adoption and Children Act register would be that children wait longer to be placed in homes, since the three-month timeframe between a child being on the register and finding a home was only met 39 percent of the time (Parkes, 2019).

Although the number of children waiting for adoptive parents has continually risen, it would be impossible to attribute this to the suspension of the Adoption and Children Act register, because the number has been rising since before that decision was made.

Additionally, according to GOV.UK (2021), the number of children who are being adopted has decreased every year since 2015. The register was suspended from March 2019 (Parkes, 2019), so again, it would be impossible to put this down to the register suspension since the decreased figures started in 2016 and considering the impacts of Covid-19.

That being said, “the latest official statistics reveal the average time that children wait, from entry into care to being adopted has gone up by two months compared to last year. The average wait is now two years and two months” (ADOPTIONUK.ORG, 2021).

One could assume that waiting times are bound to increase where the demand is higher, however, one could also disagree with suspending a system without an alternative one being put in place (Parkes, 2019), to be held accountable for the waiting times.

d. Are families receiving the right information, budgets and support to assist them post-adoption?

Adopters in England are given support both financially and mentally (CORAMBAAF.ORG, 2022 and FIRST4ADOPTION, 2022).

“Under adoption legislation local authorities are legally required to provide support services for all adoptive families, either themselves, or by arrangement with specialist services” (CORAMBAAF.ORG, 2022). Additionally, through an adopter’s social worker, they should be able to access the Adoption Support Fund (ASF), which was created to help families pay for therapy (CORAMBAAF.ORG, 2022).

Adopters are also entitled by law to Adoption Leave in the workplace (FIRST4ADOPTION, 2022).

Generally speaking, the material available on this topic all appear to be ‘success stories’, so one could conclude that the right support is being given in the majority of cases.

May 2022