BAAF Professional Support is Vital

PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT IS VITAL

Long delays by adoption agencies result in adopted people and birth families taking unacceptable risks

Almost one in five adopted people and birth families have waited six months or more for information about their birth relatives from professional adoption tracing agencies. According to the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), these delays can lead to people attempting reunions without professional support, which can have tragic consequences.

Knowing about genetic origins is essential for collecting important medical history, understanding personal identity and making sense of past events. In 2005, adopted people and their birth relatives gained the legal right to ask for intermediary services from an approved agency to help them make contact with each other.

However, according to a latest survey by BAAF, 8 per cent of adopted people or birth families who asked for information from such agencies waited 6–12 months for a full response, while an additional 10 per cent waited over a year. Because of these delays some adopted people are by-passing professional services and making their own enquiries using resources such as the electoral register and Facebook. The charity is growing increasingly concerned by this, as not all adoption reunions are successful, or even wanted, by some relatives. Without professional support the fall-out can be devastating.

BAAF’s research reveals that of the people who had conducted searches independently:
• 29 per cent had used public records, such as electoral registers
• 14 per cent had used online databases, such as 192.com
• 13 per cent had used social networking sites like Facebook and Genes Reunited
• 12 per cent had used information from other relatives.

When asked about their experience of searching without support nearly a quarter (23 per cent) said it had been a negative or somewhat difficult experience. Several people subsequently added that the costs involved in tracing birth-family relatives had prevented them from continuing their search further.

Julia Feast, Adoption, Search and Reunion Consultant at BAAF, said “It is understandably very frustrating for adopted people and birth relatives to have to wait so long to access information and/or intermediary services. Sadly, not all adoption reunion stories have a happy ending, and sometimes people have to deal with rejection and heartache. By using a professional intermediary, adopted people and birth relatives can get the necessary help with making the initial contact and also advice and support along the journey to help them manage the outcome. Doing it alone means that people will miss out on all of this.

“There needs to be more publicity to ensure that adopted people and birth relatives are aware of the professional help and services that are available to help them locate and contact the birth relative they are looking for. We would like to see intermediary services for adopted people and birth relatives better funded so that waiting times are reduced and people aren’t forced to go it alone and take unacceptable risks. There should also be funding available to help people with associated fees — tracing birth relatives should be a right for all, and people who can not afford services should not be discriminated against.”

To help aid the search and reunion of adopted people and birth families, BAAF are launching a practical step-by step guide for adopted people to tracing relatives, called Tracing Birth Relatives — A Practical Guide for Adopted People, which is available to download free of charge from their website www.adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk.

Adoption social workers embrace digital technology for family-finding
The number of online profiles of children waiting for adoption and long-term fostering has increased sharply, indicating that social workers are increasingly embracing digital technology.

According to new figures from the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), their Be My Parent service saw a 37 per cent increase in the number of children profiled online in the last 12 months, reaching an all time high of 250 children. There was also a 100 per cent increase in the numbers of videos of children featured on the website.

Be My Parent profiles children waiting for adoption or long-term fostering when attempts to place them with a family locally have not been successful. Children are referred to the service by adoption and fostering social workers at a local authority. The children can be featured in either the Be My Parent magazine on the Be My Parent website or, more usually, on both. Both the magazine and the website have hundreds of approved adopters as subscribers.

Although there has been a slight decline in the number of children featured in the magazine, the website has seen significant growth. David Holmes, BAAF’s Chief Executive, explains: “There could be a number of reasons for the rise. However, we think a shift in attitude amongst social workers around new media is playing a big part. Where once new media was viewed with suspicion and distrust, now social workers are realising that it is a powerful resource in family finding.

“The internet has also opened the doors to using video to find families for children, which has been hugely successful. A 3–4 minute video can really show the essence of a child, and our research shows that children who have videos made for them have an increase in enquiries from prospective adopters. Eighty-three per cent of families in our survey said they found it ‘very helpful’, and 96 per cent of social workers said they thought it was a valuable tool.”