Page 40-41 - WINTER 2013
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WINTER 2013
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National Adoption Week 2013
Ask any mother or father and they will tell you that the
experience of parenting a child is one that has changed
them forever. The sudden responsibility that you have for
a little human being who relies on you for every need and
whim is like no other. But what is it like to parent an adopted
child? And is it any different if you are an LGBT adopter?
Every year across the UK, around 4,000
children are adopted from our care system.
These are children, for a variety of reasons,
are unable to live safely with their birth
parents or wider birth family.
Sadly, many of these children will have been
abused or neglected before being removed
into care. As a group, these children will
need a lot of time, attention and nurturing
in order to help them recover from the
circumstances that led them into care and
to help them thrive in a stable and loving
family environment. As a result, all adoptive
parents need to be properly prepared to
understand the joys and challenges of
adoption. This involves a robust preparation,
training, assessment and approval process
which is described below.
The best advice for anyone thinking about
adoption, regardless of their sexuality, is
to do your research first. Find out as much
as you can about adoption through useful
websites such as nationaladoptionweek.org.
uk, which contains lots of information about
the adoption process, the children needing
adoption, case studies of people who have
adopted and other useful resources.
The next step is to find and speak to an
adoption agency. All local councils have
their own adoption agency and there are also
a number of voluntary adoption agencies
across the UK that you can approach. You
can search for the adoption agencies that
are closest to where you live on the website
above. You will usually be invited to an
information event to find out more.
If you want to go forward, the next step is to
attend a preparation group. These sessions
provide an opportunity to meet experienced
adopters – again, regardless of sexuality –
and learn about the challenges you may face
during the process of adopting a child, and as
the child grows up.
Once an application to adopt has been
accepted, the assessment or “home study”
begins. This involves a number of visits by a
social worker over a period of a few months.
The home study is an opportunity to explore
in depth why someone wants to adopt a
child from care and to help them reflect on
what this might mean for them and what
impact it is going to have on their life.
Adoption agencies carry out checks on all
prospective adopters. This includes with
the local authority, employer, and criminal
records checks. They also request a medical
examination and ask for personal referees.
Following the home study, the social worker
will write a report which will include
recommendations on the kind of child or
children that the prospective adopters would
best be able to care for. The prospective
adopters are invited to read and comment
on the report before it goes to the adoption
panel.
The adoption panel usually meets at least
once a month and is made up of a range of
experienced professionals and independent
members such as adoptive parents or
adopted adults. The panel’s job is to make
a recommendation as to whether or not the
application should be approved.
The vast majority of prospective adopters
are successful. Having been approved, the
adopters will then be matched with a child
and can, of course, choose which child they
are matched with.
When it comes to being approved to be
adoptive parents, LGBT applicants go
through exactly the same process as everyone
else. Despite encouragement and support from
organisations such as the British Association
for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), New
Family Social and many individual adoption
agencies, many LGBT people still feel there
will be obstacles to overcome when they apply
to adopt.
In fact, a recent YouGov survey conducted on
behalf of BAAF reveals that more than one
in ten people (13 per cent) still believe that
being bisexual, gay, lesbian or transgender
would rule them out completely from the
adoption process.
Chris Christophides, LGBT adoption and
fostering expert for BAAF, said: “While
this is understandable, not least because
of the media interest in ‘gay adoption’,
in fact many gay and lesbian people have
successfully adopted children and there is a
rapidly growing community of gay and lesbian
families that can provide support to you too.
“Research studies which compare parenting
by lesbian and gay parents with heterosexual
parents consistently report a “no difference”
message. Heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender adults may all prove to
be good, poor or indifferent parents: their
sexuality has absolutely no bearing on
whether or not they can be good parents.”
Another focus of concern may be that a
child with LGBT parents will be the target
of bullies. As one gay adopter, George, who
is also adopted himself, says: “Children are
all different; some will be picked on for being
the wrong colour, wearing glasses, red hair...
Same sex parents I would suggest will fall into
the same category. Being mixed race myself,
my parents worked hard to instill a sense
of confidence in me about my race as well
as being adopted. You have a duty of care
towards a child with a difficult start to life to
be there for them, this means being
an active part of their life and
making sure there are no issues
at school.”
In conclusion if you think
adoption might be right for you
please find out more! This year
National Adoption Week 2013
runs from 4-10 November.
For more information about
adoption visit
nationaladoptionweek.org.uk
