Adoption/Fostering in the UK

[Ozzieshunni]

I'm watching the BBC and they are talking about how difficult it has been for families to adopt in the UK. One family was denied because they were white and the council had reached their white quota of adopting families

Do you think that ethnicity should play a role in what children are placed with that family?

Do you think that adoption and fostering policies need looked at in the UK to help people who genuinely want to adopt?

 

[buttonnose82]

the way I see it is ...... you cut us all open and we all bleed the same colour. I really don't see why it is an issue, as long as a couple can provide a safe & loving environment for a child then why should it matter

surely it is better for a child too be placed in a loving family home with possibly parents of a different ethnic background than it is for them too be stuck in the care system for year after year after year

 

[Lightworker]

GOOD THREAD..SMELLY..get in here!

 

[Lightworker]

In terms of ethnicity....no, I don't think it should play such a crucial role. I think adoption is based on trying to provide secure family life for children who don't have this, and security can be facilitiated regardless of race.

I do think that perhaps it should be a consideration, as I watched a show way back, and this black guy was adopted by a white couple, and he always felt like he couldn't fully relate to his family (although many children will say that of their own families, biological or adopted) but it might serve to create an additional barrier. But in terms of how much of a consideration it should be should depend on the individual child, and prospective parents.

I wish it was a world where it didn't matter what race you were, but in terms of security, race might play a role. But I don't agree with a flat refusal due to "race quotas". Thats bananas..a child is missing out on a good home purely because of that, and thats wrong.

I thin they said they were looking to overhaul the system completely. Thats good. How it will work in practice, I don't know. I don't know much about adopting/fostering, but it seems the waiting periods are insanely long, years on average. Given that psychologists argue that the most crucial years in child-rearing are the first 3-7, even if a child was going to be taken into care straight after birth, it would be years before they even had a firm adoption arrangement.

Times need to be shorter. I don't know what the situation is now, but in some less-beaurocratic (how do you spell it?) countries, I imagine people just adopt quick as lightening. Obviously that has its pitfalls, and can lead to many kinds of exploitation..but the main aim of giving a child a secure family life is achieved at a faster rate.

 

[marley2580]

I actually think that ethnicity should be a considering factor. I know a couple that adopted two Romanian babies and did not put any effort into maintaining those children's roots and identity. This all meant that when the kids wanted to trace their roots they couldn't even speak the language or identify at all with their culture - both ended up with mental health problems and one killed himself last year.

I think that if people are going to adopt a child of another ethnicity then they MUST make real efforts to give the child links with their own ethnicity.

I also think that the adoption process is stupidly slow. Children are languishing in foster homes, with all the insecurity that brings, for years before they are adopted. And it usually takes a minimum of a year to get approved as an adoptive family. It's a hell of a lot quicker to be approved as a fosterer.

 

[tina3747]

I can see both sides.. Fickle old me! I like listening to peoples stories, one I saw on a tv programme was a black girl who was adopted by a White couple who loved her so dearly she had an amazing life , fat better than she would have had if left with her own parents of the same ethnicity. She didn't have any problems or regrets that she was placed there and was so thankful she was saved early on from a life of childrens homes.
I have also seen another programme (I think on this subject) where a black girl resented her adoptive White parents so much as all she had was racial abuse from school kids because she lived in a 'white middle class' area.
I think you'd only know if things are yhe right decision or not was if you ask them in x years and see how they felt then.
My rose tinted glasses would like me to believe a child is better off in a safe, loving, stable home rather than the care system whatever their religion/race ect.

 

[Yammas]

I dont think that it should be a deciding factor as long as the family teach the child about thir ethnic roots as well as those of other cultures.