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Tuesday’s publication of the Myth Buster on recent court cases 
prompted a diverse debate on Twitter. One tweet stood out for me, 
a distinguished academic challenging why the fall in adoptions 
wasn’t seen as a good thing? I think that’s a question worth trying 
to answer. 
In certain circumstances if the fall in numbers meant that more 
children were being permanently reunited with their families, or 
moving into good quality kinship care it would be a good thing. 
But I don’t believe that’s the case. First of all, the magnitude and 
suddenness of the drop should prompt disquiet: placement orders 
have dropped by nearly half in nine months. Second, there’s no 
evidence to believe that decisions to take more children into care 
in recent years, and see more of them adopted, have been 
inappropriate. Much has been made of the number of adoptions, 
last year - 5,000 - reaching record levels. But that’s only in recent 
years. The reality is that adoptions have been in steady decline, 
since the mid seventies when there were 25,000 a year. And there’s 
no evidence that we’re being too cautious in reuniting children. 
Elaine Farmer’s recent study found that of those returned home 
from care – about half - were neglected or abused again within two 
years. 
Has the Government’s drive to secure a recovery in adoption 
numbers perhaps blinded local authorities to alternatives? All I 
can say is that after three years immersed in this, after visits to 
perhaps forty local authorities, I have simply never come across a 
culture in which adoption was pursued as an end in itself. I don’t 
believe we have local authorities, or individual practitioners, who 
would not rather see successful reunification with the birth family 
as the reason for a child leaving care. In recent years we may have 
seen a greater – evidence informed -realism about the prospects of 
such reunification. But I don’t believe that option is ever casually 
dismissed.
I believe adoption is the best outcome for only a minority of 
children in care. Fostering can be fantastic and is, very frequently, 
the better option for some children, older children for example. 
And I have described Kinship Carers as forgotten heroes: some of 
them need more support and I want to help achieve that. But in 
terms of stability, adoption offers a permanence which neither 
long term fostering nor kinship care can match. Professor Julie 
Selwyn’s research into adoption breakdown found that a child 
aged 0-4 years was 61 times more likely to experience a disruption 
if cared for under an SGO than an adopted child of the same age. 
Ian Sinclair’s 2005 study, Foster Children: Where Do They Go And 
How Do They Do found that fewer than half of the fostering 
placements, generally expected to be long term, lasted longer than 
a year. 
So, I think we need to be truly concerned at the sudden drop in the 
number of children being selected for adoption when that option is 
likely to have such a transformative effect on lives.

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Adoption cypn nov 2014 (1)

  • 1. Tuesday’s publication of the Myth Buster on recent court cases prompted a diverse debate on Twitter. One tweet stood out for me, a distinguished academic challenging why the fall in adoptions wasn’t seen as a good thing? I think that’s a question worth trying to answer. In certain circumstances if the fall in numbers meant that more children were being permanently reunited with their families, or moving into good quality kinship care it would be a good thing. But I don’t believe that’s the case. First of all, the magnitude and suddenness of the drop should prompt disquiet: placement orders have dropped by nearly half in nine months. Second, there’s no evidence to believe that decisions to take more children into care in recent years, and see more of them adopted, have been inappropriate. Much has been made of the number of adoptions, last year - 5,000 - reaching record levels. But that’s only in recent years. The reality is that adoptions have been in steady decline, since the mid seventies when there were 25,000 a year. And there’s no evidence that we’re being too cautious in reuniting children. Elaine Farmer’s recent study found that of those returned home from care – about half - were neglected or abused again within two years. Has the Government’s drive to secure a recovery in adoption numbers perhaps blinded local authorities to alternatives? All I can say is that after three years immersed in this, after visits to perhaps forty local authorities, I have simply never come across a culture in which adoption was pursued as an end in itself. I don’t believe we have local authorities, or individual practitioners, who would not rather see successful reunification with the birth family as the reason for a child leaving care. In recent years we may have seen a greater – evidence informed -realism about the prospects of such reunification. But I don’t believe that option is ever casually dismissed.
  • 2. I believe adoption is the best outcome for only a minority of children in care. Fostering can be fantastic and is, very frequently, the better option for some children, older children for example. And I have described Kinship Carers as forgotten heroes: some of them need more support and I want to help achieve that. But in terms of stability, adoption offers a permanence which neither long term fostering nor kinship care can match. Professor Julie Selwyn’s research into adoption breakdown found that a child aged 0-4 years was 61 times more likely to experience a disruption if cared for under an SGO than an adopted child of the same age. Ian Sinclair’s 2005 study, Foster Children: Where Do They Go And How Do They Do found that fewer than half of the fostering placements, generally expected to be long term, lasted longer than a year. So, I think we need to be truly concerned at the sudden drop in the number of children being selected for adoption when that option is likely to have such a transformative effect on lives.