Some more proposed amendments from the House of Lords, this time, offerings from Baroness Howe and Lord Low…
- Publication: Amendments to be moved in Grand Committee
- Publication: Amendment to be moved in Grand Committee
Children and Families Bill – Update
17 Saturday Aug 2013
Posted in Children, Family Law, Update
Researching Reform 
A more useful amendment would be ,”That no child shall be removed from its mentally capable parents to be taken into care unless a parent has been charged with or has committed a serious crime against that child or other children.
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http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/adoption-and-fostering
http://tactcare.org.uk/data/files/resources/lac_and_offending_reducing_risk_promoting_resilience_fullreport_200212.pd
A comprehensive report published in January 2012 by The Adolescent and Childrens’ Trust (TACT) and the Centre for Research on the Child and Family at the University of East Anglia, concluded that, contrary to many preconceptions about the care system, “going into care can prove effective and extremely beneficial in helping a young person deal with prior abuse and can protect against involvement in crime.”
The report, ‘Looked after children and Offending: Reducing Risk and Promoting Resilience’, is the result of a two year Big Lottery funded research project and makes over 30 recommendations for government, local authorities and agencies working in the criminal justice system.
These include that the Government should place obligations on local authorities to ensure children in care are not at risk from inappropriate criminalisation; that all children entering care should have a full developmental screening including mental health, learning difficulties and speech and language; and that care leavers in residential and foster care should have the option of remaining in supportive placements until the age of 21.
This appears to drive Government Policy?
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I have just been looking on Community Care about social workers no longer having to “promote” contact with parents of looked after children. There must be a clear purpose. In the interests of the child. Does anyone consider this may be open to abuse by the social workers?
Narey has been trying to stop contact altogether. Contact is already being diminished by social workers but the pendulum has swung too far to say that parents and family will no longer be able to have contact with their children and will not be able to do anything about it in law and that contact will be granted depending on what social worker you have! I see parents being blackmailed!
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Members of the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights have criticised proposed changes to adoption law set out in the forthcoming Children and Families Bill.
In a detailed report examining the bill, the MPs expressed concern about a new duty that would be placed on local authorities – to consider ‘fostering for adoption’ at an early stage in the care process for children taken from their parents.
‘Fostering for adoption’ would allow prospective adopters to foster children in advance of formal adoption.
According to the MPs, moving this consideration too far forward in the care process could lead to adoption being prioritised over all other options for the children, including ‘kinship care’ with extended family members. This would breach the right of both the child and their family to respect for family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The government insists that the bill was not intended to discriminate against kinships carers. But the Committee remains concerned:
3 Comments
Jennifer on July 5, 2013 at 10:48 pm
The losses of adoptees have been ignored by society and legislators for years. I seriously wonder what people are thinking when they suggest that someone who has lost their identity and all familial relationship in childhood is lucky. Adoption is built on losses that most adults cannot possibly imagine. If children lose an opportunity to be brought up by biological relatives as an unintended consequence of this bill, then it is a tragedy.
Lukey on July 9, 2013 at 2:23 am
You’re right Jennifer, how can they have not considered this ???
Dana on July 17, 2013 at 9:22 am
Adoption should not even be considered if other members of the family wish to raise the child. The problem is the law states that adoption should be the last option but its the first option. Social workers do not work with parents or if they do, and it fails, they don’t work with extended family. If they become embroiled in care proceedings they are set up to fail. Decisions made are not within the existing law so not much hope for family when there is so much bias against them. Grandparents should be assisted to look after their grandchildren in the first instance. If that option fails then fall back on the care system. In both adoption & fostering the financial considerations skew what would really be in the best interests of the children. If social workers have targets they should be for how many families retain their children not how many are taken away, which shows more bias against the family. Keeping a child within its family should be the goal but whilst that is what’s stated the reality is very different!
“We welcome the Minister’s reassurance that it is not the Government’s intention that kinship carers should be overlooked as a consequence of the clause in the Bill concerning fostering for adoption. However, we share the concerns expressed by the Children’s Commissioner and others that, whether or not this is the intention, it may be the effect of the clause as the Bill is currently drafted.”
The report also criticises the proposed repeal of a measure requiring local authorities to consider the religious, cultural and linguistic background of children when planning the adoption of children in care. The government had not provided evidence for its claim that the requirement causes delay, they say, and its removal would be incompatible with the the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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Astakhov to bring two adopted children back to Russia from Spain
Child welfare services in Catalonia have handed two children, adopted in Spain, to the Russian children’s rights commissioner, Pavel Astakhov.
“The Child Welfare Department in Catalonia has handed two Russian children – Karina, aged 6, and Angel, aged 18 months – to the Russian children’s rights commissioner for their repatriation,” Astakhov wrote on Twitter.
Hot topic: Adoption Ban
The Spanish authorities agreed, Astakhov writes, that the children will be better off living with their relatives in Russia. “The Spanish side has acknowledged that the children would be with their relatives’ family in Russia, than at an orphanage or in an adoptive family in Spain,” he wrote.
It is the first instance where adopted Russian children are being repatriated from Spain to their homeland, Astakhov said, citing the child welfare service in Catalonia.
The two Russian children were taken away from a Russian couple residing in Spain in 2012, earlier reports said. The children’s relatives in Russia asked Astakhov to place them under their care.
Astakhov is expected to arrive in Moscow from Spain on Tuesday evening.
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http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/04/breastfeeding-islam-adoption/
How Muslim Families Use Breastfeeding to Make Adopted Babies Their Own
Under Islamic Sharia’a law, western adoption practices are frowned upon. When children are abandoned by their birth parents, they may become foster children of other families, but they are not allowed to take on their foster parents’ last name, or to have any rights of a mahram (an unmarriageable kin with whom sexual intercourse is considered incestuous). Only one thing has the power to overcome these restrictions: Breastfeeding.
In countries such as Saudi Arabia, where Islamic law is the rule, breastfeeding an infant or child under the age of two years gives the adopted child the rights of birth making them a mahram.
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http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cascw/policy/2013/08/spa-cross-post-reuniting-with.html
Reuniting with birth family – the Minnesota Family Reunification Act goes into effect.
Its a start but it should start younger than15 years old!
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