Could you give vulnerable siblings a brighter future in a loving home?
With National Adoption Week in full swing, Suzanne Griffiths, operations director for the National Adoption Service, reflects on the evolving priorities for adoption services across Wales and how the sector plans to meet the needs of some of our most vuln
waiting the longest, we need those potential adopters to be open to a range of children, especially those sibling groups.
Family court rulings over the past couple of years had reduced the number of children being considered for adoption, but guidance from the judiciary clarifying when adoption should be considered has reversed this leading to increasing numbers of children with an adoption plan.
Now in its third year, the National Adoption Service continues to focus on finding adoptive parents of every kind.
Last year’s focus on children who wait the longest saw us launch the successful #SeeTheWholeChild recruitment campaign.
This year, we have been working with the five regional local authority adoption services and voluntary adoption agencies to ask existing adopters and adopted people to champion adoption by telling their story and, in doing so, encourage and support people to start their own adoption journey.
Earlier this week, the Welsh Government announced grants and recurring funding totalling £215,000 for the service.
That money will be invaluable in developing and improving integrated, needs-based adoption services that serve the whole of Wales in a consistent and high-quality way.
The package includes one-off support to continue the targeted recruitment campaign to recruit adopters for children waiting the longest – sibling groups, older children and those with complex, uncertain or lifelong health and developmental needs.
A key focus in recent years has been developing the role that adopters and adopted people play in devising and refining services.
The recurring funding provided from the Welsh Government’s social services budget will enable us to continue to improve adoption support services across Wales and ensure every child in Wales placed for adoption will have good quality life journey work. That has been something we have heard adopters need and adopted people value.
This new funding will enable us to fundamentally review and strengthen important aspects of the adoption journey, allowing Wales to be truly innovative in its approach.
Through all the court rulings, planning, priorities, funding and targets, the fact remains that adoption is a service for our most vulnerable children.
The people who come forward to give those children a new, more certain future should be applauded and supported for turning lives around.
That is why we come together each year during National Adoption Week to celebrate the adopters, social workers, adopted people, family and friends.
We celebrate adoption and the positive difference it can make to the lives and life-chances for children who have not had the best start in life.
We celebrate those who champion adoption.
Find out more about becoming an adopter at adoptcymru.com