What we believe in

BAAF's core beliefs are outlined below. We have also produced a series of position statements.

BAAF believes:

• Each child has a right to loving and secure family relationships, a right to be heard and rights as a citizen.
• Secure attachments to carers are essential to children’s mental health and psychological development.
• Every effort should be made to enable children to live in their own birth families and kinship network, providing this is consistent with the child’s welfare.
• Where it is not in the best interests of children to live within their family of origin, an alternative family should be found which can provide continuous care, stability and life-long commitment.
• Children have a right to have their needs understood, assessed and reviewed so that, where it is necessary for them to live away from home, their placements can be planned and their needs met.
• Adoption and fostering should meet the emotional, developmental and spiritual needs of children, including needs relating to their religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background and any special needs.

BAAF values and respects the commitment made by foster carers and adoptive parents and believes that a wide range of support services is essential to enable families to parent children separated from their birth families.

BAAF will work in a child-centered, multidisciplinary and anti-discriminatory framework, with individuals, statutory agencies and voluntary organisations.

BAAF will work in partnership with its members and with others to achieve common goals, believing in the values of openness and honesty and that a powerful voice for children will best be heard by working together.

Position statements