The document discusses adoption and adoptive identity in adolescents and young adults. It covers several topics: 1) Historically, adoption in the UK involved a "clean break" where the adopted child was not given any information about their birth family and origins. More recently, there has been a shift to more openness in adoption with some contact or information sharing. 2) Research finds that adopted youth are often curious about why they were adopted and details about their birth family. Their sense of identity can be unexplored, cohesive, developing, or fragmented depending on how much they have reflected on and made sense of their adoption story. 3) Interviews with adopted youth ages 14-22 identified different types of

1. Adoption Identities & Narratives
Friday 22nd July 2016
#mrcsalford

2. Joe Smeeton
Making Research Count
at The University of Salford
#mrcsalford

3. • National initiative across ten universities in England
• A knowledge broker
• Bringing together academics, practitioners, carers and users to
facilitate the dissemination of social care research and theory
• The University of Salford is the regional hub for MRC in Greater
Manchester
• Support the learning needs of a range of organisations in the sub-
region
Making Research Count (MRC)
#mrcsalford

4. The End of Non-
Consensual Adoption?:
Promoting the Wellbeing of Children in Care, Practice
Ward and Smeeton (2016)
#mrcsalford

5. Statistics
• Currently 68 840 Looked After Children
• 0.58% of Children
• 5206 Children adopted in 2012
• 3470 were previously looked after children
• Rest were step-parent adoptions
• 85% - Stranger Adoptions
• 5% of Children in Care are adopted

6. What is the issue adoption is
trying to address?
• Children in care reported to have significantly worse
outcomes in education, health job prospects and
involvement with criminal justice system
• Poor outcomes associated with instability in the care
system (Thoburn, 2010)
• Children’s pre-care experiences also contribute to
perceived poor outcomes (Bullock et al, 2006)
• Same predictors of poor health and education also
predict the need for reception into care (Berridge,
2007)
• Outcomes for looked after children however are
improving (DfE, 2015)

7. European comparison
• Adoption rarely features in European welfare regimes
(Thoburn, 2010) other than as a consensual process
• UK – parental agreement can be dispensed with
• England and Wales has relatively small population of
children in care
• Policy is to keep children at home wherever possible or exit
from care at any opportunity through permanence options –
kinship care, guardianship, adoption (Reluctant Parent)
• Looked After children are therefore those with most
complex needs often entering care later as adolescent
erupters with more complex and damaging pre-care
experiences and fewer alternatives to live in alternative
care.

8. Ideology
• “But in many cases adoption is the best
option – particularly for younger children,
but also for some older children. Adoption
gives vulnerable children, includng many
with complex needs and a history of ill-
treatment, the greatest possible stability, in
a permanent home with a permanent
family. It is, in every sense of the word, for
good.” (DfE, 2012:6)

9. More than a child welfare
option
•Personal and intimate issues for adults
•Infertility and personal relationships
•Social Policy and new family forms
•‘Rights’ to be a parent
•Powerful adult led agenda

10. Clean Break
•Concept of possession of children is
key difference between UK and
European norms
•In the UK the child belongs either to
the birth family or the adoptive family.
•Adoption permanently transfers a child
from one family to another.
•Care and adoption proceedings are
adversarial

11. Success
• Lots of evidence that adoption can facilitate developmental
catch up
• Rushton (2004) found that 71% of placements of late placed
children were intact after 6 years, 50% described as happy
• Selwyn (2006) only 6% of placements had ended after 7
years
• Factors that encourage parents to continue
• Disrupting placement would be admitting defeat or failure
• It would be letting the child down – obligation should be fulfilled
• Bonded with child despite difficulties
• Triseliotis (2002) Adoption confers a much stronger sense of
security and belonging. Enduring psychosocial base into
adulthood

12. Success
• Selwyn et al (2014) post-order disruption over 12 year
period surprisingly low at 3.2%
• Lower than comparable placements
• Doesn’t account for pre-order disruptions
• Children who are more likely to disrupt were older
when entered care.
• ¾ of children who experienced a disruption were older
than 4 years at placement
• McSherry and Fargas Malet (2013) found difference
was small between adoption, kinship and birth parent
placements

13. Fostering
• Is the most usual placement
• Carers can be highly committed and provide secuity
• Often thought of as being unstable
• Not seen as a permanence option (is that why it is
inherently unstable)
• Permanent fostering has no legal status – PR remains
with the local authority
• Foster carer takes on a semi-professional role but given
lower status than SW and less power & responsibility
than birth parent
• Children moved due to categorisation of foster carer

14. The case against adoption
•Challenge to adoption falls within 3
domains that overlap human rights
and social work values:
• Legal
• Ethical
• Empirical

15. Legal
• European Court of Human Rights
• Strasbourg court YC v UK (2012) EHRR 967, para 134:
• “Family ties may only be severed in very exceptional
circumstances and everything must be done to preserve
personal relations and, where appropriate, to ‘rebuild’ the
family. It is not enough to show that a child could be placed in
a more beneficial environment for his upbringing.”
• The court has to assure itself that the local authority has
explored and exhausted alternatives short of applying for
non-consensual adoption orders which are to be made ‘only
in exceptional circumstances and motivated by the overriding
requirements pertaining to the child’s welfare’ (Sprinz, 2014)

16. Legal
• English law isn’t short of alternatives:
• S.20, Family Assistance Orders, Supervision Orders,
Child Arrangement Orders, Special Guardianship Orders
all of which allow for placement with family, foster
carers or in a range of specialist residential provision
within health or social care.
• SW’s therefore have to be able to show robust evidence
and analysis of why other options aren’t available or
appropriate.
• Philosophical gulf between legal position (last option)
and Narey’s (2011:2) “No-one disputes that adoption
offers the most stable and secure environment…but too
few are given this chance”

17. Children & Families Act (2014)
• S.9 amends the Adoption & Children Act (2002) s,51a to
enable the court to make an order in favour of post-
adoption contact at the time of making the adoption
order or at any time afterwards, in favour of:
• Any person who (but for child’s adoption) would be related to
the child by blood (incl half-blood), marriage or civil
partnership;
• Any former guardian of the child;
• Any person who had pr for the child immediately before the
making of an adoption order;
• Any person who was entitled to make an application for an
order under s26 in respect of the child by virtue of subsection
3c, d, or e of that section
• Any person with whom the child has lived for a period of at
least one year

18. Impact?
• Any person who can convince the court that an
application would not risk disrupting the child’s life ’to
such an extent that he or she would be harmed by it
(within the meaning of the 1989 Act) are likely to get
leave to make the application
• This potentially changes the ‘permanent’ nature of
adoption to one of uncertainty which leaves the door
open for anyone from the child’s pre-adoption history
• Combine this with the unfolding capacity for social
media to facilitate unplanned unsupervised contact
with birth parents and the ‘clean break’ looks less clean

19. Ethical
Shaw et al (2014 a) Decisions are made within the child’s
timescales and the courts timescales “But what about the
parent’s timescales?”
They suggest 3 years indicated for ongoing work with birth
parents
Featherstone et al (2014) argue that arbitrary timescales
privilege child removal and adoption as the preferred
outcome. Adoption without concerns reinforces temporal
pressures on decision makers and delimits consideration of
support for families
Both, McConnell & Booth (2006) describe parents with LD’s as
facing temporal discrimination.

20. Broadhurst & Mason (2013)
• “Anecdotal evidence suggests that following the compulsory
removal of children the plight of birth mothers all too easily
falls outside service provision, leaving women to make their
own sense of the lifestyle and relationship circumstances that
have led to compulsory child protection intervention”
• Many of these mothers face recurrent removals of children in
subsequent care proceedings – growing moral concern that
this may be due to the iatrogenic effects of compulsory legal
proceedings
• ie. Adoption proceedings create the need for recurrent
adoption proceedings
• Compulsory adoption is further damaging already vulnerable
people (37% of mothers in recurrent removal aged between
14 and 24)
• SW assessments before the court can be ’disproportionately
deficit focused’ (Scaife, 2013, Smeeton & Boxall, 2011)

21. Empirical
• Selwyn and Masson (2014: 1714) findings should
‘…dispel misconceptions about the fragile nature of
adoption... For the vast majority of children who were
adopted the placement endured; adoptive parents
were committed and tenacious, despite experienceing
difficulties in their children’s teenage years.’
• Is this due to the adoption per se or rather that
adopted children tend to be younger at placement and
to have had fewer pre-care negative experiences and
fewer placement moves? Does adoption ‘cherry pick’
children who are more likely to settle well into
placement?

22. Empirical
• Forrester et al (2009) found that there is little evidence
that the care system has a negative impact upon
children’s welfare. It improved in almost all of the
studied they reviewed and there was none in which it
deteriorated..
• They argue that public care should be seen as a way of
supporting families rather than seeking permanent
alternatives to its use.
• “Only adoption in early childhood offers a realistic
prospect for most children of achieving welfare
outcomes at a similar level to the general population.”
(2009: 450)

23. Empirical
• Sellick, Thoburn and Philpot (2004) found that
when age at placement and other variables are
held constant, there are no differences in
breakdown rates between adoptive placements
and placements with permanent foster families.
• Long term kinship care placements and short term
placements that become permanent found to be
more successful for the full range of children than
placements with strangers.

24. Summing up
• Adoption for younger children placed early seems to be
very successful and the best outcome for the child
• The evidence for adoption being better than other
placement options is less convincing
• The legal foundations for adoption are shaky
• Adoption due to its presence skews decision-making
about individual children but also limits the exploration
and strategic planning for other permanence options
(e.g. permanent fostering)
• Do the deleterious long-term effects on birth parents
due to non-consensual adoption make such adoption
ethically untenable or do the long term benefits to the
child outweigh such qualms?

25. Summing up
• Contact with birth family is complex and we may
not be able to maintain the ‘clean break’ – should
we?
• Is ‘open adoption’ emerging from the complexity?
• Adoption as a ‘happy ever after’ story has a very
powerful emotional pull, despite its complexities.
Children can be rescued initially from their birth
parents but then from a life ‘languishing in care’.
• The question is ‘do they always need to be rescued
from either?’

26. Professor Beth Neil
Making Research Count
Salford
22 July 2016
Where did I come from? Who
am I now? Adoption and
identity

27. What is identity?
Where
have I come
from?
Who am I
now?
Who will I
be?
An internalised and
evolving story of the self
(McAdams, 2011)

28. What is adoption?
A legal procedure in which all parental rights
and responsibilities for a child are transferred
permanently to the adoptive parent/s.
Types of adoption:
• Step-parent adoption
• “Relinquished” babies
• Intercountry adoption
• Adoption of children from public care

29. ‘Closed’ adoption in England
• Adoptive parents’ identity could be concealed
from birth parents (from 1947)
• Adoptive parents often did not see a copy of
the original birth certificate
• Before 1975 adopted person has no rights to
access birth certificate
• No contact between child and birth family
after adoption, at least until 1980s/90s

30. “Telling the child” (1952)
• A child should be told of their adoption “at
such an early age that he feels he has
always known it”.
BUT
“It must be absolutely certain in his mind
that his first mother has gone out of his life
for ever… Since the only final parting a child
can conceive is death, it may well be that we
are justified in telling the child that his
mother is dead ...”
(Edwards, 1947, cited in Kornitzer
“Adoption in the modern world”
1952)

31. Giving background information
“The adopted child himself has a right to know
his own past. It is part of him and he cannot be
a whole, integrated person without it….One of
the ways we can help is by showing adopters the
need for frank and truthful explanations …and
the supreme importance of keeping open the
channels of communication between
themselves and their children."
(Jane Rowe, ‘Parents, children and adoption’ 1966)

32. You look in the mirror and
you can't compare it with
anybody. You’re a stranger
because you don't know
what your real mother
looks like…
For a long time the business
of who I am has been on my
mind… I feel as being only
half a person, the other half
being obscured by my
adoption
You are one of the minority… And when people hear you
are adopted they expect you to be different
In Search of Origins (John Triseliotis,
1973)

33. What are adoptees curious about?
(Wrobel & Dillon, 2009)
• Three quarters of 153 adopted adolescents
(mean age 16) were moderately or very
curious about their birth parents; number 1
question:
Why was I adopted?

34. Openness in adoption
Can consist of
•Passing on/archiving information
•Ongoing contact through: letters,
meetings, phone, social media
•Communication between adoptive
parents and the child

35. Pre-school Middle childhood Adolescence

36. Adoptive identity in late
adolescence
• In depth interviews with
32 adopted young people,
age 14-22 (mean age 18)
• Most were adopted from
care (mean age 21
months)
• Most had experienced
some birth family contact

37. Neil, Beek & Ward 2015: Adoptive
identity
Cohesive Developing
Unexplored Fragmented
Who am I? Why
was I adopted?

38. Unexplored adoptive identity (n=5)
• very simple accounts of why they were adopted
• ‘at ease’; their story made sense for them
• saw adoption entirely as a positive experience
• unquestioning acceptance of adoptive parents
I just know that she couldn’t look after me, that’s
about it. [And any idea why she couldn’t look after
you?] I don’t know really.

39. Cohesive identity (n=16)
• Why? Concise stories that had been ‘worked
on’ and told from multiple perspectives
• Strong identity as member of adoptive family
• Reflective about role of birth family
• Adoption seen as a ‘better life’
• Not tormented by information gaps

40. When my birth mum was born, her mum didn’t
have a very good upbringing so didn’t really
know how to look after her…so when it came to
having kids she didn’t know how to bring us
up…she mixed with the wrong people and with
drugs …it was safer for us to be adopted.
[Meeting my birth mum], it just kind of made
me understand in a way why she did it and that
…even though she’s part of my life, she’s not a
big part of my life. (Lauren)

41. Developing identity (n=5)
• Questions about adoption not fully resolved:
“there’s got to be more to it”
• Feelings of wanting and needing to find out
more
• Uncertain, unsettled or contradictory feelings
about the birth family
• Adoptive families clearly seen as “my family”

42. I’ve actually woken up or sort of cried in my
sleep and I do imagine my dad in my mind…
I keep wanting to ask ‘how did my dad die?’
or so many things like that …I do tend to ask
these questions again … (Matthew)

43. Fragmented identity (n=6)
 narratives were often rigid, ‘stuck’ or ‘going
round in circles’
 some people avoided exploration of adoption
 strong negative feelings: anger, sadness,
stigma or loss
 ambivalent feelings about birth family

44. I have no idea [why I was adopted], it
could be completely different. That’s
the story that I’ve been told, but I have
no idea. It’s that uncertainty which
hurts. …I don’t know if you understand
the degree that it bothers me…and it
can bother me daily, even now, its like a
burn (Guy)

45. Age and timing
• As I have matured, the
reasons why I’m adopted
have become clearer to
me and this is helped me
find my identity… [It]
takes a certain level of
maturity to understand
(Jacob)
Exploration
increased with
age
• I just had like exams
in school and then
went to college and
all this stuff just
built up (Henry)
But so did
pressure from
other issues

46. Variations in curiosity
“I was very nosy and asked a lot of questions - I was that
kind of child that mum and dad had to be honest and tell
me everything if I asked”. (Lucy)
“I only focus on the present, not the past, not the future”
(William)
“I don’t know if I want to know really to be honest, at the
moment” (Henry)

47. Emotional vulnerability/strength
I was very emotional and things like that so I just wanted
to focus on one family rather than two. (Caitlin)
I’ve had this vision that I’m going to meet my birth mum
and it scared me and I didn’t go to sleep for a day, for a
night. (Ellis)
I’ve been able to cope with it …Its trying to get through life
really…Yeah, it’s happened but you can’t change it, you
can only move forward. (Samantha)

48. Other individual factors
Gender
Learning
disability
Memories
Willing to
talk
Feeling
rejected

49. The adoptive family
“I remember when I was
younger and very confused
about why was adopted and
[my mum] was absolutely
fantastic and talked me all
the way through it and said
“it’s okay to have feelings
about this other person
because at the end of the
day she actually gave birth
to you”. And she said “I’m
always going to be your
mum”. (Paige)
Parents
talking
Young
persons
thoughts
and
feelings

50. The peer group
I’m not the biggest fan of saying ‘I’m
adopted, blah, blah, blah’, …unlike
my brother who is quite open about
that. (Sam)
Before people
really knew what
being adopted
meant, they had
one mindset: “you
wasn’t wanted,
you was given up”
and I was holding
back and thinking
“I don’t want
people to say that
to me” (Lauren)
We talked about it if my brother
bought it up, …he remembers
more…we both kind of went through
the same emotions and the same
process. …You’ve still got that little
bit of your past to hold onto (Lauren)

51. Was contact linked to young people’s
identity development?
Adoptive parents who were
more ‘communicatively
open’ promoted more birth
family contact
84% of those with
‘cohesive’ identity were
having birth family contact
(versus 44% of others)

52. Young people's views of contact
Good things
Information
Communication
Relationships
Difficulties
Emotional strain
Information gaps
Further loss

53. Did social workers help?
• Life story books
• Letters for later life
• Adoption folders/files
• Life story work:
“she’s the only person I can
say most things to…I find it
helpful to have someone
other than [my parents] to
speak to because you don’t
upset them by speaking to
them”
“The only real connection
I’ve had is through what we
know as the adoption book,
which we have upstairs”

54. Wise words from adopted young
people
(Advice to adopters)
Always be open and honest about it... And
when they do want to meet their parents -
then stand by them. … guide them through it …
I know a lot would feel threatened …but it’s not
like that. Trust me, I’m an adopted kid: you was
brought up by your adoptive mum and dad and
they are your mum and dad.

55. If they write you letters, write them back…let them
know what’s going on in your life and let them know
that you still think about them.
(Advice to birth parents)
It is important that the child knows where
they’ve come from and have at least someone
of their blood to know…so if they have any
questions of who they are they’ve got someone
to ask. (Advice to social workers)

56. Thank you!
e.neil@uea.ac.uk
https://www.uea.ac.uk/contact-after-adoption

57. Refreshments
and Networking Break

58. “IT’S A BIG DEAL BEING GIVEN A
PERSON”
EXPLORING THE LINKS BETWEEN INFERTILITY
AND ADOPTION
Nottingham Trent University and Family Care Nottingham
Presentation 22nd July 2016
Researchers Jo Ward (NTU) and Joe Smeeton (Salford)

59. Purpose
• To investigate the links between infertility and adoption
• To try and ascertain why such a small number of people
who experience infertility then go on to adopt; and
• To make some suggestions for practice

60. Methodology
• Literature review
• Face to face interviews (four people) – these respondents
had all had a baby through various forms of assisted
conception – asking if and when they had ever considered
adoption and what influenced them
• Online survey through two fertility websites – asking
whether people had ever considered adoption and what
influenced them

61. Literature review
• The experience of infertility and the drive to have a birth
child – ‘pronatalist’ ideology – society expects women to
become pregnant
• Rituals such as the baby shower emphasise this special
female role
• Men experience yearning to have a biological child

62. Literature review (contd)
Factors affecting decision to adopt:
• New technologies, more options
• Fewer ‘preferred’ children available to adopt
• Adoption seen as second best – stigma
• Unfamiliarity of adoption
• Adoption agencies uncompromising

63. Literature review (contd)
Turning points and transitions:
• Emotionally and/or financially exhausted
• One partner refused to go on
• Had reached point of decision and stuck to it
• Had run out of options or decided to rule some out
• Decided to opt for adoption as a positive choice

64. Interviews – what they told us
Can be grouped into 3 areas:
• Pregnancy related issues
• Infertility issues
• Adoption related issues

65. Pregnancy related issues
• Wanting to have a baby
• Strong societal pressure
• Wanted to have a baby ‘for’ their partners

66. Pregnancy related issues
• I think I wanted to experience pregnancy. And I wanted
(husband’s) child more than I wanted my own child if that
makes sense
• I just wanted to be, I wanted to experience it all, I really
wanted to be pregnant, carry a baby and all that. It were a
big drive for me
• People are nice to you when you’re pregnant; it’s like
membership of a really exclusive club

67. Infertility issues
• A treadmill, a roller coaster – can’t get off
• Knowing when to stop
• There’s always a chance it might work next time

68. Infertility issues
• Once you’re on that treatment pathway, you kind of just
carry on with it really
• We started IVF because it just seems the natural step,
you know, you go and see the doctor and they refer you,
it’s quite medicalised isn’t it?
• You’re playing these mind games, really just thinking “just
one more go, just one more go, it might work then”.
Knowing when to stop is one of the hardest decisions

69. Infertility issues
Would they consider adoption now they have one biological
child?
Two issues emerged:
Exhaustion
• We’d been on this journey for 10 years, an emotional
roller coaster being miserable for a lot of it if I’m honest
…..We’ve got our baby, let’s just enjoy life
Choices
• We’ve got two embryos in the freezer and I think we’d
probably go for that before adoption

70. Adoption related issues – process
Participants had chosen NOT to adopt – why?
Perceived as long and complex, even when they
were given evidence to the contrary – difficult for
agencies to get this right
• I applied for an information pack and they did follow
it up with a phone call ……I didn’t expect a phone
call, whoa just a minute!
• It is a lengthy process but you’ve got to expect that,
it’s a big deal being given a person

71. Intrusive
• Can we face our relationship being interrogated?
………..you’ve got to be very strongly motivated to go
through that let alone the actual parenting
Predetermined expectations of what adoptive parents
should be like
• The different sort of parenting was about things like
getting in a bath and nudity around the house …..I
mentioned it to one of the social workers at the
information evening and she was very “Well there’s no
question of that”

72. Adoption related issues – personal
Needed to exhaust infertility
treatment
Both had to agree
Age
Had to consider existing child

73. Adoption related issues – personal
• I needed to exhaust the birth
child route first
• I wanted to be a mum so much I
would have adopted …but he
was unsure about what sort of
parent he could be

74. Adoption related issues – child
• Genetic family, nature versus nurture, and the child being
different
• Children have special needs – were they up to the task?

75. Adoption related issues – child
• There is a risk because of what the child might have been
through
• I don’t want to use words that are sort of pejorative but
….damaged
But
• You should really give them kids a chance as well
because even at that age they are so adoptable
• I thought, it’s not just my life I’m dealing with here, it’s the
lives of the child or children you’d be adopting, so you’d
have to be pretty sure

76. Adoption related issues
There was a certain lack of trust in the adoption agencies’
message:
• They’ll tell you there’s no babies out there but I’ll tell you
there is

77. Survey
• 38 respondents, all female
• 9 had children and didn’t want more;
• 15 had children but would like more; and
• 14 didn’t have children but would like to have them
• 79% had considered adoption prior to or during infertility
treatment

78. Survey
Comments confirmed the findings from the interviews, i.e.
• They wanted to experience pregnancy; wanted to be
genetically related to the child; or they were worried about
the challenges of adoption
• People who viewed adoption either positively or very
positively seem to have been strongly influenced by
people they knew or family and friends

79. Summary and conclusions
1. The importance to women of being pregnant and
carrying a baby
2. The treadmill of infertility treatment
3. Adoptive parenting is stigmatising
4. The need for adoptive parenting to be ‘normalised’
5. The possibility of adoption agencies engaging people
earlier, while still involved in fertility treatment
6. Positive first hand accounts of adoption are important to
enable people to make the transition to a different form
of family-building
7. Men are more equal partners in adoption than in fertility
treatment

80. Summary and conclusions
We (Researchers) think it is important that people are
engaged in adoption much earlier in the fertility journey.
• People can keep more than one idea in mind at a time
• Adoption agencies are uncompromising in their attitude to
this
• Earlier engagement might help people make the choice to
move to adoption sooner – so they can step off the
treadmill

81. “It’s a big deal being given a person”
• For further information about this research please contact
Jo.ward@ntu.ac.uk or J.K.Smeeton@Salford.ac.uk

82. Steve Myers
‘SAS Survival-Are you Tough Enough’:
Adoptive parents’ experience of ‘hard to
place’ children
#mrcsalford

83. • Steve Myers, Director of Social Sciences,
University of Salford
• Steve Clarke, Community Relations Manager,
Children’s Services, Caritas Care
• Garry Crawford, Professor of Sociology
• Donna Peach, Lecturer in Social Work
The experience of adopters who
are ‘stretched’ to consider
harder to place children

85. Caritas Care (a North West--‐based voluntary
adoption agency) received funding from the DfE to
develop and deliver a digital marketing strategy,
with the aim of supporting and encouraging
adopters to come forward by reducing the barriers
and addressing misperceptions that prevent some
people offering themselves as adopters
The Project

86. • Reach new potential adopters using a range of
innovative technologies
• Affect the perceptions of people to view adoption as
a positive choice for them
• Build an ‘online community’ for adopters to share
knowledge, experiences and ideas
• Create a Virtual Learning Environment with and for
adopters
Objectives of Digital
marketing Strategy

87. To provide empirical evidence on participants’
experiences and perceptions of the adoption
system and process, which can then be fed into
developing the new digital marketing strategy.
Aim of the research

88. • Three focus groups (Morgan 1997) were held with a total of 17
participants, aged between 35 and 50; 3 were male and 14 female
• The participants were selected from a database of existing and
potential adopters held by Caritas Care
• Focus groups were recorded (with the permission of the
participants) using audio‐equipment, then transcribed, thematically
coded and analysed by the researchers
• This research has been subject to an internal University ethical
approval process, all data is stored securely, and the participants
fully briefed on the aims of the project and their role within it
The Research: Phase 1

89. ‘You had someone for who it was a vocation [the
representative from Caritas Care] and for the other
[the representative of another North West-based
adoption agency] it was [just] a job. For Caritas
Care it was a vocation…[they] were just really
open’
Many participants held largely
negative opinions of local
authority adoption agencies

90. ‘In their defence they have huge workloads, but still, at the
same time, that is a problem that needs solving’
‘[a social worker] came round and she sat with us, talked to
us, and she was just really lovely and really warm and
explained everything in loads of detail’
Most blamed their poor encounters with local
authority adoption agencies on the
bureaucracy of these agencies, or simply
their heavy workload and poor funding

91. ‘I was just walking past one day and I thought ‘you
know what, I’m going to go and have a look in’
Choosing an agency was heavily
influenced by recommendations from
friends and family and being a locally-
based organisation

92. ‘We [also] practice a faith…and a friend who had started the
adoption process in another part of the country said that the local
authority was worried that they might indoctrinate the child…so
we were a bit worried too’
‘A friend of mine who was thinking about adoption, who is
Muslim…when I said about Caritas [Care] …and I was saying
they were really good and you should give them a ring. She’d
looked it up and seen [it was once a Catholic adoption agency]
and was put off…and just felt it wouldn’t be open to her’
Faith was a factor

93. ‘As I said, we’ve got two boys already...The social
worker came round…they didn’t ask us what we
wanted and we didn’t really mind…but they said they’d
put a girl in with the boys, because…if you put a boy
in, they are more likely to compete with one
another…if you put a little girl in, they’ll kind of nurture
her, and try and protect her. And that is exactly what
they [her sons] have done, they just ruin her [laughs]’
Initial ideas of what sort of child
adopters could imagine having
changed over time

94. ‘Initially we were after just one…but then we saw
these [their (to be) three adopted children] and just
fell in love’
Participants wanted to highlight how
their initial preconceptions/criteria
changed over time and for some this
narrative was linked with the journey
towards how they ‘found’ the child(ren)
they adopted.

95. ‘You don’t want to bombard people with too
much…if you’re pushing ‘don’t just go for
babies’…then I think you can put people off. But
through the process, I wouldn’t say that your mind
gets changed…but it gets opened up’
Most suggested that the idea of adopting
harder to place children should not be
broached too soon or pushed too hard in
advertising as this may put some
potential adopters off

96. ‘My husband was like ‘we are having a sibling
group! I am NOT going through this process
again!’ [laughs]
‘We felt like the whole process was designed to
put us off. Like it’s survival of the fittest. If you get
through to the actual approval day, then you are
like an Olympian… you have made it!’
Most participants highlighted the
adoption process as difficult and at
times very stressful

97. ‘For me, I don’t think you stop worrying until the
final adoption papers comes through’
‘I think post‐adoption they should do this more
often…get everyone in a room. This is lovely isn’t it
[laughs]. You can just talk openly!’
Worries and concerns are varied and
very specific to the individual adopters

98. • Two focus groups were held
• 1 group of 6 adoptive parents
• 1 group of 5 Adoption Social Workers
• to explore how prospective adopters engage
with the realities of adoption and the fact that the
majority of children are deemed ‘hard to place’
because of their multiple needs
The Research: Phase 2

99. My brother had adopted two children who I am
godmother to, so adoption is very much part of our
family
My background is sort of emergency
nursing…challenging disabilities in children…I
probably won’t struggle very much with taking on
because I’ve got the skills and experience
Personal and life experiences of
adopters are an important factor

100. When you have a biological child, you don’t actually
know what they’re going to look like. And so we didn’t
want a photograph to be an influence. The first time
we cast eyes on them, was the day we were
introduced to them
I think even biological parents…your desire is to have
a fit, healthy, happy child
Matching is an important time
for reflection and change

101. The picture (of adoption) that is painted…we didn’t
think was particularly accurate let’s put it that way
The whole adoption process is so fraught with
fantasies and hopes and wishes
Truthfulness about the reality of
adoption is important, but this needs to
be managed sensitively

102. Each every evening we were chunter, chunter, chunter
at each other. And we were sort of expecting
withdrawn, quiet children and they were in your face.
They would climb over your children, punch you
At the time when we adopted there was a programme
on called SAS Survival Are You Tough Enough, and
that’s how I felt it was…it was a bit like you were on
some sort of survival challenge

103. And if they don’t (adopt) that’s fair enough, that’s
better for them and better for the child as well.
You know even say maybe out of 10 prospective
adopters when they are faced with the facts and
they hear the reality of it all maybe only five out of
10 may adopt. But nevertheless then, they’re
going in with their eyes open.

104. My daughter seemed like she was Imelda Marcos
with the amount of shoes that she had. I was told
that they won’t have anything. And they had…We
had enormous amounts…enormous amounts of
stuff. I kept going ‘where are we going to put
everything?’.
Children’s possessions are an important
and neglected area of concern

105. You’re listening (to the social worker) but in real terms
your big focus is getting to panel and being accepted,
what’s the word, I can’t think of the word? Approved.
It’s like a job interview isn’t it?
We may have some children with us by the end of the
year or whatever and that’s when the training then
needs to come in. Because that’s really when you’re
most open and receptive
Professional support can be really
helpful, but requires focused content and
to be mindful of timing in the process

106. People coming which is really useful in the training
about their experience of adoption and that it was quite
positive
Caritas put us in contact with a couple who had
adopted three children as well. And that helped as
well. It was more reality
They (the prospective adopters) always end up
knowing how loved these children are and how great it
is, no matter what the challenges are
Learning from existing adopters is a key
change activity

107. We’ve got this massive page long list of services that
we offer. But paying for a cleaner wasn’t on there. No,
but that’s what they needed. But we don’t everyone to
know that we pay for a cleaner otherwise everybody
will want a cleaner.
A family I was working with took a sibling group of
three children. (What was needed) was kind of
practical support. So kind of cleaning, those sorts of
things.
Pro-active, predictive and practical
assistance is highly regarded

108. Signposting them to maybe a play therapist or a
psychologist or somebody who is going to work
with the child or maybe somebody that is going to
work with them to give them the confidence to
know how it’s going to help them to parent that
child. As opposed to ‘here is the diagnostic label’
and expecting them to know what to do

109. some sort of database that actually identifies when
the children are coming to certain life stages. So
maybe starting school. So that we would be pro-
active in knowing that little Johnny is coming up
for, he’s just about to go to school.

110. • DfE funding has been used in 4 key areas:
• University of Salford research
• Caritas Care I-Adopt Website
• Social Media strategy
• “The Hub” Mobile information vehicle

111. • This has been very useful in providing evidence
based information, what do potential adopters
want and expect from us?
• Key messages = “ Realism”
• Potential adopters want the reality of the
adoption process and the children in the system.
May lead to some opting out early but majority
want & expect reality.
University of Salford research

112. • Potential adopters also want to see real stories,
real life experiences and want to hear from real
adopters.
• We have taken these messages and
implemented them as a central part of our
recruitment strategies going forward.

113. • Has been revamped and rebuilt.
• Very user friendly, lots of information & very easy
to download information pack.
• Designed to be compatible with ipads, mobile
phones and tablets.
• Using Google analytics/data to understand what
people want and expect from our website.
Caritas Care I-Adopt Website

114. • Now gaining demographic info re: age, gender,
when, how and where people are accessing our
website.
• Vital information helping to direct our messages
and strategy.
• Online forum: has been unsuccessful but we
know why. We are new to the format and already
well established forums being used.

115. • We may re-introduce the forum in a different
format.
• Exploring the idea of an ‘adopters area’. May in
time become a more manageable and relevant
forum and may be linked to an online learning
resource area.
• Live chat function has been more successful and
is now starting to be used.

116. • The Blog: Is already proving to be a very popular
area of the website.
• Utilises the message of ‘real stories, real life
experiences’ etc.
• Lauren’s Story very popular.
• Great feedback and comments
• Will be developed further in future.

117. http://caritascare-iadopt.org.uk/

118. • Similar to website: Has been revamped and
restructured.
• Use of Facebook/Twitter now fully co-ordinated
with a consistent message and themes.
• Links directly to website and our activities in the
field with the public.
Social Media strategy

119. “The Hub” Caritas Care mobile
information unit.

120. • Bespoke vehicle which brings all the strands of
our recruitment strategy together in face to face
meetings with the public.
• North West region often difficult for people to
access our offices and meetings.
• We take Caritas Care to where people shop and
work and leisure locations.

121. • “Hub” is more than a mobile information van.
• An effective mobile office.
• WiFi built in, Interactive TV. Use ipads and
Laptops.
• Helps develop and facilitate
relationships/partnerships with external
organisations.

122. • Visit regular locations where people now
expect to see us. People approach us when
they are ready.
• Enables us to have conversations with people
at very early stage of their information
gathering.
• We can introduce notion of ‘stretching’ and
reality of the situation early.

123. • Funding has enabled us to completely
restructure our recruitment strategies under
the banner of I-adopt.
• University research, Website, Social Media
and ‘the Hub’ all brought together to form
consistent message and themes.
• THANKS FOR LISTENING
• QUESTIONS?
Summary

124. Lucy Ryan
#mrcsalford
Adopting Identities: How People
Become Parents

125. Panel discussion
• Joe Smeeton
• Professor Beth Neil
• Jo Ward
• Steve Myers
• Lucy Ryan
#mrcsalford

126. Joe Smeeton
Conference Close
#mrcsalford