Press releases

Adoption costs - love needs support: BAAF at the party conferences

Issued: 10 October 2005

BAAF held fringe meetings at all three party conferences. Here we provide you with some highlights from each of the fringe meetings.

The Liberal Democrats conference
Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Education Annette Brooke said that adoptive children require much support from a new family. She said it was important for local authorities to provide support to adoptive parents, but 'the level of support needed is not there'. The meeting was chaired by Felicity Collier, Chief Executive of BAAF, who said the government's adoption strategy was good in the way local authorities were required to maintain certain standards in the care of children, but that it was unfair that the investment to support adoptive families was much less than investment in local authority care. Ian Wright, Group Corporate Director of Communications for Diageo and an adoptive parent of two, called for a co-ordinated and considered approach to supporting parents and children in adoptive families. He said it was important to have someone to trust to turn to for advice and assistance.

The Labour conference
Chairing the Labour meeting was Jonathon Shaw MP who talked about the good record of adoption that the UK has and its rightly liberal view of who can adopt. He welcomed the new Adoption and Children Act, 2002. Anthony Douglas, BAAF Chair, related his experiences of being an adopted child and how it had affected him throughout his life. Adoption support services are vital and not funded sufficiently, he went on, and it is easy to forget children when they have been put into a stable situation. Yvette Gayford, Chief Executive of Parents and Children Together (PACT) and chair of the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies, talked about what support was needed for adopters, such as having a familiar face - which wasn't always the case as local authorities often struggle to maintain the workforce.

Maria Eagle MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children, Young People and Families, said that as a society "we have under-estimated the trauma and difficulty that children and adopters face." She said that the new Act has still not been fully implemented, but there are now regulations on an increase in financial support, and in recognition and understanding for support. £70 million has been given to local authorities for this, and she admitted that although this may not be as much as the voluntary sector would have liked, it will inform the next spending review and keep it on the agenda.

The Conservative conference
More support was needed for adoptive parents, Baroness Morris, Conservative spokesperson on the family, said BAAF's Conservative fringe meeting. She said that though she had not held her brief for very long, she felt passionate about the issues surrounding adoption and fostering and was keen to find some solutions to the problems involved. She asserted that it had been a real disappointment that legislation had stopped sort of imposing an obligation on local authorities to provide support services for adoptive families.

Helen Oakwater, an adoptive mother of three children and a trustee of Adoption UK, described the importance of getting therapy for children to counteract low self-worth, but observed that there were huge difficulties getting this therapy funded.

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