[leticia94]

Hello everyone I am just starting my aqa extended project dissertation for my second year at college. My chosen topic is adoption and my chosen question is 'Should adoption be easier?' I want lots of your views on it, and if possible any websites you think would make my grades go higher! I am very interested in this topic and I want everyone's advice and help with it please,
any nasty comments about adoption will just be ignored
Thank you!!!

[Odiem23]

How hard is adoption at the moment? And if it's very hard, isn't it to ensure that the children end up in safe/good families? Your chosen question seems quite vague - easier in what way? And easier for who?

[ro-ro]

I believe adoption should be faster but not neccessarily 'easier' per se.

At present lots of children remain in temporary foster care for years after being removed because of social services policy of trying to keep families together and rehabilitate parents with social services viewing adoption as a last resort.

The first five years of a child are when a child develops most so having no stability can be life damaging. It's harsh but I think the child's wellbeing and welfare is a hundred times more important than the parent keeping their child. Children are vulnerable and incapable of caring for themselves so as society it's our moral obligation to protect them regardless of the damage that does to adults happiness.

The latest episode of Lost Children (c4 - can be seen on 4od) would be a really good example of that. It's about a teenage boy who goes to a special school for kid's with behavioural issues who can't be mainstreamed school. He was adopted eventually but before he was adopted her was moved TWENTY times from his mum (a drug addict who he saw shoot up in front of him) to family and family friends and foster homes. I'm not going to lie the ending isn't super happy but as his adoptive mum, foster parents and him talk about things you can see how those years have really impacted on him as a young adult.

It's harsh and I'm sure plenty of people won't agree but I think if you have a baby and have serious issues at the point of birth that aren't resolved or partially resolved in the first year of the child's life the child should be adopted. I base that on my own experiences; growing up with friends who were in care and now in turn knowing a few people who have children who trapped hovering in the care system. Their parents definitely aren't capable of looking after their children but social services threaten adoption and then put it off. Surely it's best for those kids to be placed with parents who truly want them and will love them and devote their life to them rather than growing up with strangers in limbo because their biological parents have drug/alcohol abuse issues that they MIGHT resolve one day.

Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up happy, safe and secure. Being adopted offers that chance to children whoa re in the care system (not in temporary short term care but there indefinitely) so the sooner it happens the better in my book.

[BaldFadedBrother]

Faster, but not easier.

Easier suggest, short cuts are being taken and certain criteria aren't being adhered too...

however the efficiency of the process could allow it to be faster

[Clare~Bear]

I suppose it can be frustrating for the parents and the child if it takes a long time. but surely thats better, if it means the child is going to a loving family that isn't going to abuse them?

[ro-ro]

Yeh it would be but a lot of people who adopt want young children. So if you put it off for as long as possible it's plausible the child could be permenantly emotionally damaged or left to languish in the care system. My friends step-nephew is currently in care with the view to adoption and the social worker told her Step Mum if a boy doesn't get adopted by 2 years old the odds of him being adopted at all are very slim. For girls it's about 5 years old because apparently adoptive parents prefer little girls.

[Harolinho]

People who want to adopt are subjected to vigorous and seemingly endlessly laborious background checks and deep personal analysis. Apparently the process is so difficult that many people are put off because they don't want to go through an experience that is comparable to being audited while a cat shoves firecrackers up your arse.

[Annoying-Mouse]

Unless you can establish current policies that are in place and the reasons for them not to be in place, I'd say no. There's always reasons for procedures. It sucks that but that's the way it is, without procedures out society would collapse.

[SilverArch]

Decisions about children's futures could be made faster, because some are spending way too long in care with no future planned

But there does need to be a thorough assessment of prospective parents and no, it shouldn't be very easy for them. I am thinking of adopting myself, and I would be happy to go through the process, even if it takes a couple of years. After all, you have to commit to an entire lifetime of parenting after, not just a year or two

A large number of kids in care do have emotional problems that your avergage kid doesn't have. As most kids needing adoption come from the worst situations (otherwise they would have been sent home again) they tend to need really committed parents who will hang in there. A thorough assessment is one way of showing that you have perseverence! Josh on Lost Children was a good example of a kid who has really bad emotional problems because of his early life. Love is not enough often. Not that all adopted kids are like that, and many have more minor issues, but enough are that adoptive parents need special support sites etc

Have a read through the AdoptionUK message boards and the site, that's pretty informative