Screen test for adopters
Could films help find new families for vulnerable children? Kathleen Nutt reports
FILMS of children needing permanent homes will be shown to prospective adoptive parents at two pilot events run by Scotland’s Adoption Register next month. It will be the first time such “film featuring evenings” have been held in Scotland and are the latest way the register hopes to increase the number of vulnerable youngsters finding loving families.
Six individual children or groups of siblings will be featured at each of the events in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Couples and individuals who have been approved as adopters or prospective adopters who have passed background checks will be able to go along. Many of the youngsters featured will be harder to place because they are older or have more complex physical or emotional needs.
The film evenings follows successful exchange days in Glasgow and Dundee last autumn when couples hoping to adopt could read profiles and see photographs of children. Their toys, clothes, drawings and letters were among items included in display stands. That initiative, which is to be held every six months, has so far led to permanent homes being found for nine children with possible matches identified for 12 others.
Sue Brunton, project leader of Scotland’s Adoption Register, hopes the film featuring evenings will lead to more children being placed in lifelong families. “We know people respond better to a child when they see a DVD of him or her playing or doing something than they would if they just read a profile.
“The film evenings and the exchange days are opportunities for adopters to come along and see children who are out there and perhaps challenge themselves a little about who they could provide homes for.
“They may set out on the adoption journey saying, ‘I just want a child under two’ but perhaps after coming along to an exchange day or a film evening and seeing an older child they may change their minds. It might make them think, ‘I could manage a four-year-old.’”
Families waiting to adopt have welcomed the exchange days and film evenings, which they say allow them to be more involved and proactive. However, one couple who adopted two children before the register was established had mixed views on the new initiatives.
Anne and Mark Coles, who live in Glasgow, adopted two children Lily, 10, and Jack, seven. Lily came to live with them when she was 18 months and was adopted by them after a lengthy process because her adoption was initially contested by her birth parents. Jack was adopted as a young baby.
Mr and Mrs Coles welcomed efforts by the register to increase the number of children finding permanent homes, but were worried the film evenings and exchange days could have unintended consequences for prospective adopters and children.
“I do have mixed views on them,” said Mrs Coles, 47, who works as a lawyer. “On the one hand I can see if there are children who are being matched who otherwise wouldn’t be, that is a good thing.
“But on the other hand I think about the older children who are featured and wonder how they feel if they are put forward, featured, and then still not found a match. Are they left with the feeling that nobody wants them?”
Mr Coles, 51, who works in marketing, said seeing images of a child so early in the adoption process could make couples less objective about some of the problems facing the child. “We didn’t see a photograph of Lily until we had actually been matched with her,” he said. “We had been told how she looked, we had seen the paperwork and read about her background. But once you see a photograph your emotions are really tugged. Your heart can gallop away with you and it’s easy to be blinded by some of the issues which may face that child.”
MS Brunton said the Coles have valid points but pointed out that social workers needed to make every effort to find permanent families. “These events are not for all children, they are for the children we know will wait longest for an adoptive family. Social workers need to be proactive in family-finding or the children will not achieve permanence.
“Involving children in the selection of photographs, school work, quotes and so on can reassure them that their social worker is doing all she or he can to find them a new family.”
Addressing Mr Coles’s point, she added: “I would take the view that it is impossible to take the emotion out of the process of choosing a child. Prospective adopters have gone through a very thorough assessment and preparation process to establish their suitability to care for some of our most vulnerable children.
“They should be seen as partners in the process and trusted to make the right decisions for any child joining their family and for themselves.”
The exchange days held last autumn included stands from local authorities with pictures and information about the children. Some included toys and clothes belonging to the children, while others showed drawings and letters by them outlining what sort of family they would like.
Ministers introduced the register almost two years ago in an attempt to increase the number of adoptions and speed up what is often a lengthy process. Until it was established councils usually had to place children with families living locally, but the register enables matches to be made across Scotland. Currently all but two local authorities are signed up to all or some of the register’s services.
Children in care can be put on the register once a decision has been made on whether they can be adopted. If they have not been matched with a family three months after entering the adoption process, the register can search for a match anywhere in Scotland.