Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T03:11:45.738Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - If adoption is the answer, what was the question?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2024

Robin Sen
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Christian Kerr
Affiliation:
Leeds Beckett University
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Adoption is contentious. That is not new but in today's social media cauldron, it is an area of social work and social policy that will generate instant heat. This chapter has been written as the MacAlister Review of Children's Social Care in England delivered its Final Report. For this author, it was somewhat of a surprise to find that in the end the Review was almost silent on adoption, particularly when it has been a central plank and ‘gold standard’ for successive recent governments in England. Adoption UK (2022), in their response to the Final Report of the MacAlister Review, were certainly disappointed:

[T]here are two significant problems with the decision to sideline adoption. Firstly, it means a vital part of the care story is missing. Most adopted people come from the care system. Adopted children have the same terrible starts in life as those still in care, with the same lasting effects. Currently we have a care system that invests heavily in creating adoptive families and then fades away, leaving adopters to pick up the pieces of their child's trauma. 70% of adoptive families say they face a continual struggle for support. Secondly, it risks perpetuating siloes and competition in the system, which is not in the best interests of children.

(Adoption UK, 2022, np)

It is very difficult to work out a reason for the Review's adoption minimalism. Adoption, as this chapter will argue, is complex. Perhaps, as many argued when the Terms of Reference were set out, the scale of the Review was too great for the timeframe and the expertise utilised. Some of the recommendations on Family Network Plans (MacAlister Review Final Report, p 103), delegated authority (p 135) and lifelong guardianship (p 156), plus an overall emphasis on children remaining with families and kinship care, feel like a move away from adoption. It may be a genuine desire to push the benefits of adoption upstream. Or, when faced with the cost of properly resourcing adoption support, it may be another ‘Big Society’ move that leans on kinship and special guardianship to provide a ‘get out of funding free’ card for government, harvesting the goodness and finances of citizens.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Future of Children's Care
Critical Perspectives on Children's Services Reform
, pp. 145 - 160
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×