Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.
A report published recently recommends significant changes to allow adopted children closer contact with their birth families in the future. The widespread reforms are seen by some families as long overdue while others worry that they may discourage people from adopting.
The current “letterbox” contact system between adopted children and birth families is considered out of date. The new report recommends replacing these contacts with face-to-face meetings when safe to do so. Adoption reform advocates say that the current system is rooted in the past and that the report is a catalyst for positive change.
Adoption is regarded as the state’s most powerful intervention in family life, separating children permanently from their birth families. The adoption process alters children’s identities forever, removing their birth parents’ names from their birth certificates. Most adopted children grow up without seeing or knowing any of their birth family.
In England, approximately 3,000 children are adopted each year. The court authorises the adoption process, in which judges determine the level of contact the child has with their birth parents, usually via an intermediary and often just twice a year. The Family Rights Group’s Chair of Trustees describes adoption as a “life sentence…without any right to appeal” and applauds the changes that enable families to remain in contact. The report recommends more compassion and less emphasis on birth families as the problem and offers a new way forward
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.