Press releases
Channel 4 and adoption agencies join forces to ‘shake up’ adoption
Issued: 05 February 2010
This press release applies to the England & Wales
An innovative new approach to the adoption assessment process has been developed in a unique partnership between four adoption agencies, Betty TV and Channel 4.
The concept was developed following the Find Me a Family series screened on Channel 4 as part of their Forgotten Children season last May. The series followed a number of prospective adopters through the adoption process, but Betty TV were keen to ‘add value’ to adopter’s experiences. So the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) Northamptonshire Children’s Services, St Francis’ Children’s Society Adoption Agency and Parents for Children Adoption Agency and psychologist, Stephen Briers helped them develop additional practice based exercises and experiences within best practice guidelines.
The exercises challenged conceptual blocks the prospective adopters had about the types of children they might adopt. Many of the exercises were held over a residential weekend and included:
- Hands on experience with the types of children who typically wait longest
- Being interviewed by a panel of looked after children
- Running a children’s party
Following these new exercises there was a noticeable change in the mood and confidence of the prospective adopters. Social workers from the adoption agencies also fed back that they gained a better insight in to the prospective adopters. They were able to have greater understanding and a new and different way of assess their capabilities.
Mo O’Reilly, Director of Child Placement at BAAF said: “We recently conducted research that showed that 42% of people said they would rather adopt a single child than a sibling group, 26% wouldn’t adopt a child over 5, and 38% would be unwilling to adopt a child with disabilities. However the reality is that these are the children waiting for adoption. The exercises developed challenged these perceptions, and there was a noticeable change in the adopters. This shake up of the assessment process got us all very excited and we’re really keen to see it extended into every day practice.”
A DVD, funded by Channel 4 and training manual, funded by BAAF, has been produced that will enable adoption and fostering agencies to use the exercises. The DVD includes commentary from social workers about the value of the new approach. All of this will be sent free of charge to adoption and fostering agencies across the UK.
The DVD and training pack Pushing the Boundaries of Assessment is available on this website .
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