SUMMARY REPORT ON THE ACES PROJECT

INTRODUCTION

The ACES (Adopted Children Everywhere in Scotland) project began in March 2002 and was funded for three years by the Big Lottery Fund.   It comprised a full-time project worker, a part-time researcher and was managed by Scottish Adoption Association.

The purpose of the project was two-fold.    Firstly, we carried out an audit of the views of adopted children and young people, adoptive parents and professionals involved in adoption.   We wanted to find out what was well provided in terms of After Adoption support and what were gaps in services.   Limited resources prevented us extending the audit to birth parents, although we are aware that their support needs are often overlooked.

Secondly, by responding to the gaps in services highlighted in the audit, we wanted to provide a range of support services to adopted children, young people and their adoptive parents.

When the grant was originally applied for, the target group was teenagers.   Once our project worker was in post, what was striking was the need for support for younger children and requests for support from birth relatives rather than solely birth parents.   The Big Lottery Fund agreed to us extending the range of the original target group.

Over the three years, we have provided support to birth relatives, adopted children and young people and adoptive parents.   We have also run groups for adopted children and have piloted parenting skills groups based on the work of Holly van Gulden and Ann Sutton, Scottish Adoption’s previous Chief Executive.   We have been particularly committed to giving adopted children and young people more of a voice through making a video of them talking about their experiences for adoption – “Adoption Through Our Eyes”.

Copies of the full report on the ACES project are available from Scottish Adoption Association at a cost of £15 inclusive of postage.

The first three chapters of the full report cover the findings of the audit which focussed on

            a)         Adopters experiences of After Adoption support services

            b)         Children and Young Peoples views on adoption issues

            c)         After Adoption support by Professionals

The fourth chapter is devoted to direct work with birth relatives, adopters and children.   The report ends with a conclusion and recommendations, details of which are noted in this summary.

Through disseminating our findings, we hope this research and the work of the ACES project will help inform current practice and the development of future After Adoption support services in Scotland.

CONCLUSION

Several adoptive parents who took part in the audit of After Adoption support services in Scotland commented that they appreciated being asked about their views and experiences.   Whilst some were satisfied with the services they received, others felt a sense of isolation and frustration when trying to obtain services, often at a time of crisis.   They were uncertain what services were available and which local authority would fund support particularly when children were placed outwith their original authority and an adoption order had been granted.    

Once they had accessed support services, professionals had different and sometimes conflicting approaches to the emotional and behavioural difficulties adoptive parents were facing with their child.   There were also disagreements amongst Health, Social Work and Education Departments about who would fund therapeutic services.

The provision of After Adoption support is recognised in Scottish legislation with adoption agencies having a “duty” to provide accessible and responsive support services.    Standard 30 of the National Care Standards (Adoption Agencies) specifies “You will have access to a full range of support services after your child has been adopted”.

However, there remain longstanding issues about the delivery of After Adoption services.

It is generally recognised that adoption agencies have not only a legal but also a moral responsibility to provide ongoing support, bearing in mind the long term impact of early life experiences many adopted children have and the life long implications of adoption.   However services are piecemeal due to geographical factors as well as short term funding, particularly within the voluntary sector.

The project hoped to provide a database of After Adoption services throughout Scotland but was unable to do so partly because of limitations in the research method (questionnaires) but also because of the fragmented nature of services.

Another limitation of the audit was that the majority of respondents were linked into adoption agencies or support groups.    We do not know the views of a large, silent population of adopted children and adoptive parents who have no links with agencies but may require support.

Those working within the field of adoption have become better at conveying to adoptive parents that we expect them to need support at some stage.   Our understanding of the complex needs of children being placed for adoption has grown significantly.   We are more aware of the neurological damage caused by substance abuse and early trauma.   Whereas assumptions were often made that adopted children placed as babies would be relatively unproblematic to care for, our experience in the project is that some children placed as babies display attachment difficulties in later years, particularly at times of transition eg moving from primary to secondary school.

As understanding of the complexities of issues for children and their families grows, so the support offered needs to be more sophisticated.   One of the biggest challenges facing workers in this field is how to intervene effectively with families where children have significant attachment issues.    All too often support is reactive rather than predicting need and equipping adoptive parents in advance for the issues they may face during the different ages and stages of adoption.

As Rushton and Dance (2002) page 124 state in their literature review and UK survey of adoptions support services.

“Few benefits will accrue to adoptive families if the delivery system improves greatly but if the interventions are mis-targeted, or inexpertly delivered.    Few benefits will accrue to families if the effectiveness of certain interventions has been established but they are not equally distributed”.

This is the challenge facing agencies delivering After Adoption Support Services.

Possibly the greatest benefit of the project was the opportunity it gave to engage with adopted children and young people.   On the whole, the length of involvement with children referred was greater than initially anticipated as they required more intensive support which needed to be provided within a trusting relationship with the project worker.   Hopefully, having had a positive experience of receiving support as a child will help young people feel more confident to return to an adoption agency should they require support when they are older.

Two significant themes emerged from work with children.   Firstly, their sense of “not knowing” about their birth family which occurred regardless of how well they had adjusted to being adopted.   Secondly, sometimes very caring and supportive adoptive parents were unaware of their child’s wish to talk or hear about their birth family.   Parents misinterpreted silence on the subject of birth parents as a lack of interest from the child.   Often it more accurately reflected the child’s perception that their adoptive parents silence was discomfort or lack of permission to speak or ask questions.   Bridging this gap can only be to mutual benefit of adopted children and their parents.

One of the ways we tried to achieve this was through group work with children.   We found that adopted children tend to generalise from their own specific experience of adoption.   Group work helped widen their understanding of different kinds of adoption experiences and provided opportunities for workers to correct misperceptions.

In 1996 Phillips and McWilliam (page 225) state

“It is time children and young people had a real say in the future of post- placement services”.

Nearly a decade later this still holds true.   We hope the ACES project has made some progress towards achieving this.

Scottish Executive “Adoption Policy Review Group” – Report Phase 1

Phillips R and McWilliam E, “After Adoption Working with adoptive families” BAAF 1996

Rushton A and Dance C, “Adoption support services for families in difficulty” BAAF 2002

RECOMMENDATIONS

KEY ISSUES FOR FUTURE SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

·         Information on child pre-placement – needs to be analytical rather than solely descriptive.   Child’s negative behaviour should be explained in context

·         Adoptive parents sense of failure asking for help needs to be overcome by increasing awareness of adoption issues amongst current and potential service providers within social work and other relevant disciplines

·         At point of placement, adoptive parents should be provided with a written agreement on what services will be available to them and their child throughout childhood.   This should be drawn up by the placing agency and should involve other relevant parties

·         The positive contribution birth parents can make to their child’s life needs to be encouraged and supported, where appropriate eg by providing background information

·         There needs to be a Scottish – wide agreement amongst Local Authorities about which authority has responsibility for providing After Adoption support following the granting of an adoption order.   As in England, a specific timescale needs to be decided post placement and post adoption order being granted

·         Access to After Adoption support services needs to be improved by overcoming geographical limitations and delays in service provision

·         Newsletters and websites to be used to inform adopters of training events

·         Training needs to be pro-active equipping adoptive parents to deal effectively with potential issues which might arise with their children

·         There is a need to develop a partnership approach to multidisciplinary work to increase understanding of adoption issues amongst different disciplines and also to reduce the potential for adoptive parents to be given conflicting information

·         Regularly seek service users views in order to evaluate, improve and develop After Adoption support services

·         Funding to be secured so that direct work with adopted children can continue and develop

·         Geographical variations in criteria for and level of payment of adoption allowance needs to be standardised throughout Scotland

·         Ongoing specialised training required for adoptive parents and workers to address adopted children’s emotional and behavioural issues particularly around early trauma and attachment