Friday 30 September 2011

Adapt and adopt

From The Daily Mail:

Most people would be barred from adopting their own children because of the rules imposed by social workers, the head of a children’s charity said yesterday.

Anne Marie Carrie, of Barnardo’s, said couples coming forward to adopt were treated with ‘enormous suspicion’ and their treatment was a tragedy both for them and the children left languishing in state care...

Earlier this year Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said the apartheid-style race rules that have long prevented couples adopting a child of a different ethnic background would be swept away.

But social workers still insist on extensive home trials of would-be parents and exhaustive examinations of both their parenting skills and their attitudes and thinking. Middle-class couples regularly complain that they are effectively bullied out of trying to adopt.


I only know one couple who ever tried to adopt (they are mixed-race, if I'm still allowed to say that, and the nicest and most middle of the road couple you can imagine, with a perfectly well brought up little lad) and after a few years of being humilitated, they just gave up.

Barnardo's is a fakecharity of course, and a year ago they were saying exactly the opposite to what they are saying now, but hey.

6 comments:

A K Haart said...

"they just gave up"

And that's a real tragedy for some unknown child isn't it? But nobody will ever be held accountable for it.

Anonymous said...

Same goes for me.

The social workers are scum.

Bill Quango MP said...

My cousin adopted a Russian kid in the end. Went to Archangel and went through the process there. It still takes time and going through checks etc.
Seeing is he's a surgeon and on the medical council and she's been a full time registered children's nanny/nurse for 20 years you'd have thought it would be straight forward over here.

Alas, she's South Africa and he's over 60. So..almost guaranteed to fail.

James Higham said...

Tell us more about Barnardo's or point me to a post.

Mark Wadsworth said...

AKH, yup.

BQ, good for them.

Anon, I'm sorry to hear it, but it's them and you and thousands of others, isn't it?

JH, click the "Barnardo's" label for all relevant posts.

Bayard said...

What gets me is that would-be adoptive parents have to jump through all these hoops, whereas some violent, lowlife scum can "adopt" a child by the simple process of becoming its mother's boyfriend without anybody doing anything about it. AFAICS, it's all down to the blame culture. If an adoption goes wrong, then the social workers who set it up will be held responsible. Suage will probably result. So the social workers make damn sure everything is A++++. In the case of the low life scum, no-one is responsible so nobody gives a shit.