Background
to the Research
- This
is a study of the processes for freeing children for adoption in NI.
Freeing children for adoption is provided for in Articles 17 and 18
of the Adoption (NI) Order 1987. This legislation is substantially
similar to that which currently exists in England and Wales pending
the implementation of the new Adoption and Children Act (2003). This
study was commissioned because of the widespread perception that the
process was being undermined by long delays.
Research
Approach
- Social
workers completed questionnaires in relation to 200 children who were
in various stages of the process from the Adoption Panel recommending
that adoption was in the child's best interests to the granting of
Freeing and then Adoption Orders. The main focus was the time taken
for the whole process and for various stages within it.
Main
Findings
- The
findings confirmed that the process is dogged by delay at each of
its several stages. In total the average time from the child becoming
looked after to the granting of an Adoption Order was 4.5 years. There
was some, but not conclusive, evidence that, in recent practice, this
period was lessening.
- Most
of the time taken was in the stages of the process for which social
services had lead responsibility, principally the decision to pursue
adoption as the plan for a child. There were also problems with the
legal services provided to Health and Social Services Trusts.
- The
social workers were very conscious of the complexity of the cases,
of the gravity and difficulty of the decision to seek adoption, often
against a parent's wishes, and of the level of scrutiny their work
would be subject to in court. These worries appeared to contribute
much to the delays in decision-making.
- The
children were mostly very young when admitted to care - the average
age was 1 year 7 months. Most (80%) were admitted to care because
they were being neglected or were in danger of being neglected. Their
parents were well known to social services and had multiple problems.
Almost 50% of the children's mothers had been in care themselves.
Alcohol abuse was a contributory factor in the parent's failure to
parent for 64% of the children. Most (74%) of the parents contested
the social services' application and this contributed much to the
delay. Very few parents were successful in contesting cases in court
- 94% of the Freeing Order applications were granted.
- The
study's findings were subject to widespread consultation before the
report was finalised, including an all day seminar of invited legal
and social services personnel.
Conclusions
- Various
recommendations for consideration by COAC emerged from the review.
- The
Department should introduce adoption standards to NI similar to the
National Adoption Standards, which apply to England and Wales, and
ensure that Boards and Trusts are adequately resourced to implement
these.
- Health
and Social Services Boards and Trusts should ensure that the policies
which have been established to promote permanency planning for looked
after children are implemented and appropriately monitored and resourced.
- There
should be an increase in resources in and available to child care
social work teams. This should include an increase in social work
staff, with particular attention being paid to training staff in permanence
and adoption work and retaining experienced staff. There is also a
need to increase the resources available for assessment of children
and families.
- New
adoption legislation should be introduced to bring adoption law into
alignment with the Children Order and allow a better balance to be
struck between the paramouncy of the child's welfare and the rights
of parents in adoption proceedings.
- Efforts
should be made, led by the COAC, to rationalise the current reporting
system that demands at least three different, but related, reports
for different stages of the Freeing Order process.
- Continuous
efforts should be made to reduce delay in court proceedings. In the
period covered by this research, delay in care order proceedings became
an area of increasing concern and needs to be addressed urgently.
Better case planning for individual cases in the court arena was widely
seen as a means of reducing delay. Key elements of case planning that
were thought to need further development were consolidating Care Order
and Freeing Order proceedings in an increased number of cases and
the rationalisation of the use of expert witnesses.
- Parents
contested 74% of freeing applications and lost 94% of the cases they
contested. Contested cases are much more expensive in terms of staff,
time, money and they take longer to progress than those that proceed
with agreement. Alternative means of resolving the conflict that these
cases generate should be explored.
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