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www.communitycare.co.uk/2014/09/16/dishonesty-adoption-setting-children-families-fail/

Links don't work in first post jellies so reposted the link!!

Some states in the US have a law that entitles adopters to sue agencies who withhold pertinent information about a child. Perhaps we need that here? As the article makes clear, to inform adopters fully can be a vital aspect of child protection, to say nothing else.

Not sure that we were directly lied to but we certainly didn't have all the information they held, particularly on middly. Nothing in there would have changed our minds but it may have helped to explain some of his behaviours. There was one thing particularly that we really should have known about, but didn't. I worry sometimes about how well sws/family finders know these children. How much they understand about trauma. I'm still reading stuff about good attachment to fc which means it'll transfer. Really? Says who? How do they work that one out? And genetic history. Poor genetic inheritance. Bm abused drugs but baby meeting milestones. What about the booze? 13 years ago I didn't understand how huge an impact on a foetus booze can have. I get the impression that there's still some naïveté about this. Drugs seem to be the biggie but alcohol can be so much worse. I know lots of adopters and I've been quite amazed at how many children have been, or are in the process of being, diagnosed with ASD. I understand that birth families may not understand about ASD nor attempt assessment but ..... these families often have long histories of sw involvement. Someone needs to be digging deeper rather than the superficial approach they currently seem to take.

interesting article, we were definitely not told the full truth and I'm not sure they knew the full truth themselves for me, however, the biggest shock has come in the shape of ill informed educational and health professionals, who start from the position that it must be the parents who are to blame for any 'bad' behaviour, rather than looking for the root causes straight away. AS is almost 16 and I am now being offered an assessment of our needs by a social care team - too little, too late IMO, I've been asking for this for over 10 years! and even then, they have been rude, ignorant and refused to answer a simple question, what support is available? because they know the answer is b****r all! (sorry I'm ranting again!)

My local pasw ( auto text correction just tried to turn that to PAWS) just told me of the high surge in adoption breakdown rate locally this last year. And that is in a council where pasw is good, and they prepared us as well as could reasonably be expected. Of course don't know what info and training the parents got all those years ago, when the kids were placed. Pasw here are trying to get a support group going where adopted teenagers meet and support each other. Sounds like a good idea, hope it gets off the ground. If forums are anything to go by, many parents don't get the support they need, or not soon enough, when things are difficult, and of course some kids are just too damaged , but there is a lot of misunderstanding by professionals as well. I don't think we are set up to fail by authorities but they often don't help in the right way due to ignorance of our issues, or lack of cash.

My local pasw ( auto text correction just tried to turn that to PAWS) just told me of the high surge in adoption breakdown rate locally this last year. And that is in a council where pasw is good, and they prepared us as well as could reasonably be expected. Of course don't know what info and training the parents got all those years ago, when the kids were placed. Pasw here are trying to get a support group going where adopted teenagers meet and support each other. Sounds like a good idea, hope it gets off the ground. If forums are anything to go by, many parents don't get the support they need, or not soon enough, when things are difficult, and of course some kids are just to damaged , but there is a lot of misunderstanding by professionals as well. I don't think we are set up to fail by authorities but they often don't help in the right way due to ignorance of our issues, or lack of cash.

The SWs in our LA seem to have a weak understanding of trauma and it's long term impact. They have a highly optimistic view of what can be achieved - as if by magic - by placement in a loving family. The resources for post adoption support are inadequate (both human and financial) and I don't think any of the professionals I've met really understand how grim, undermining and relentless it can be living with children with serious attachment and behavioural problems. . I think most of the SWs we've met have been perfectly pleasant and well meaning but they are poorly trained, don't have access to good research/ a good evidence base on which to base their decisions or advice and work within a system that limits their autonomy. . Having said that, they work in a profession where there are very high level of professional bullying and when criticised seem to react by employing the same tactics. . So, I think that if adopters are to be treated fairly the SW profession needs much better training - including on trauma and neglect, better management and clearer objectives related to the quality and effectiveness and responsiveness of post adoption support. . SWs also need to work with prospective adopters to 'decode' the information provided on children during the linking and matching process. What do they think the likely impact might be of x and y genetic factors in BF? What might be the impact of exposure to DV.? What about the impact of neglect? Trauma? What do they know from recent research? What do they know from their own experience?

Added to this is the Facebook problem. Social workers in our case were totally helpless and the Adoption has now fragmented. I found this article http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed65592

What they need to do is not be afraid of giving as much information as possible on children, their families, their histories, as well as anything that indicates genetic issues, FAS or anything else (when not proven - as they do not generally give information unless officially documented / diagnosed) - knowledge is power - so its not that adopters would necessarily walk away but that they would have the information needed to make good and early decisions about what support / investigations are needed and not be left guessing and going round and round in circles for years. Also all children should have access to good quality therapy from an early age - it may prevent (or help prevent/ lessen) so many problems in the future. Therapy is necessary for dealing with trauma - and good therapy could pre-empt serious behavioural problems. All this is cost effective in the long term but they seem incapable of having a long term perspective - budgets are immediate I suppose. I have a dim view of services whose sole aim seems to be to find a way of denying any need exists or that the child qualifies for their service - and SS are way at the top of the list - closely followed by mental health and education - so where does that leave us?