Adoption from care in Northern Ireland: problems in the process

Abstract

This is a study of the processes for freeing children for adoption in Northern Ireland. The focus was the time taken from admission to care to adoption order. The findings confirmed that the process is dogged by delay at each stage. In total the average time from the child becoming looked after to the granting of an adoption order was 4.5 years. Most of the time taken was in the stages for which social services had lead responsibility, principally the decision to pursue adoption as the plan for a child. The children were very young when admitted to care – average age 1 year 7 months. Most were admitted to care because they were being neglected. Their parents were well known to social services and had multiple problems. Most parents unsuccessfully contested the social services’ application and this contributed much to the delay. Their former foster parents adopted almost half of the children and these children tended to be placed more quickly with their adopters than those placed with adopters who were not their foster parents prior to the adoption process.

Who Goes Where?: Young Children's Pathways through Care in Northern Ireland

“…In recent years, the range of children for whom adoption is now considered as a placement option has broadened to include older children and those who have been in care for extended periods (DHSSPS, 2002;Kelly and McSherry, 2002). Under the Adoption (NI) Order 1987, parental responsibility transfers firstly to the HSC trust, initially via an Article 17 (consensual) or 18 (nonconsensual) freeing order, and subsequently to the adopters.…”

“…Under the Adoption (NI) Order 1987, parental responsibility transfers firstly to the HSC trust, initially via an Article 17 (consensual) or 18 (nonconsensual) freeing order, and subsequently to the adopters. Northern Ireland was initially slow to embrace the notion of adoption for children in care (Kelly, 1999b;Kelly and McSherry, 2002). However, there is now an increased focus on adoption by all HSC trusts.…”

“…Within Northern Ireland, there has been a growing interest in recent years in the routes that children take into care (McSherry et al, 2004McSherry, 2006;Devaney, 2009;Devaney and Spratt, 2009), their experiences while in care and the development of adoption as a placement option (Kelly, 1999a, b;Kelly and McSherry, 2002;Winter, 2009), and issues relating to leaving care (Pinkerton, 2006a, b;Collins and Pinkerton, 2008). Northern Ireland provides the ideal environment for longitudinal research.…”

Paramountcy, Family Rights and Contested Adoption: Does Contact with Birth Relatives Balance the Scales?

“…Since the implementation of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 Northern Ireland has seen 23 an increased use of adoption to provide continuity, stability and enduring relationships to children in 24 State care who cannot return home to their birth family (Kelly and McSherry, 2002). As is the case 25 across the UK and in the US, many of these adoptions are contested by birth parents and made via 26 legislation, e.g.…”

“…As is the case 25 across the UK and in the US, many of these adoptions are contested by birth parents and made via 26 legislation, e.g. Freeing Orders in Northern Ireland, which dispenses with the need for parental 27 consent (Tefre, 2015; Kelly and McSherry, 2002). Non-consensual adoption from care, however, is a 28 contested area of child-welfare practice because of its life-long implications for birth parent and 29 child, and the necessity and proportionality of the rights infringements it entails are strongly 30 debated (Bywaters, 2015).…”