Newsletter

Summer Issue 08
Reforms to the adoption process
The government wants to speed up the adoption process for those
wishing to become adoptive parents for the high numbers of
children waiting for a permanent family.
An expert working group has urgently
reviewed the effectiveness of adoption
services across the whole of the
country. The findings are that there are
unacceptable delays mainly within the
court system, and that the process has
in some cases been too elongated and
bureaucratic. In some cases adoptive
parents have not felt sufficiently
supported post placement whilst caring
for children with complex needs.
The government’s new proposal is to
divide the assessment of prospective
adopters into two stages; the first stage,
the ‘pre-qualification’ stage will take
two months and the second stage, the
‘full assessment’ will take 4 months and
this timescale will include the application
being considered by the adoption panel.
Second time adopters or people who have
fostered will not need to go through stage
one again. The prospective adopter reports
will become less descriptive and contain
more analysis about the capacity of the
prospective adopter to parent a child.
The newly devised PAR (the Prospective
Adopters Report) is currently being piloted
but it is likely that the new format will
take at least 12 months to roll out.
It is proposed to introduce a central point
of enquiry to steer people through the
enquiry process. There will be a stronger
Reforms to the
Adoption Process
Post Adoption
Support
Continues
focus on post adoption support and
greater clarity and consistency nationally.
The government also wants to ensure
that all adopters and children with a plan
for adoption will go live on the national
adoption register within three months
of the formal decision making process to
maximise their chances of a match.
These proposals are being put in place to
minimise waiting times and to make the
selection process easier.
The government is stressing that a
national collaborative approach is required
to find families for children and improve
timescales. They want multi-agency
‘Round table’ discussions to address these
issues. I have been invited to attend
these meeting in South Tyneside and look
forward to doing so and working with our
local authority colleagues.
I will keep you updated with any further
changes and you can keep up to date by
checking our website. I also welcome your
views and personal experiences regarding
the above issues as you are all key players
in the midst of the national debate.
The full report is available on our website.
Margaret Bell
DFW summer event
Picnic and treasure hunt at
Tanfield Railway
Come and join us for a DFW
summer picnic to be held
at the Tanfield Railway,
Gateshead on Sunday 5th
August at 1.00pm.
Family ticket £23.00
or £9.00 per adult and
£5.00 per child.
There will be strawberries!
RSVP to [email protected]
May 2012
Forging New
Partnerships
Virtual Contact
Research
Meet the Team
Seminars for
2012
Puppy Power
Should adoption support be essential for all adopters?
The Guardian recently published
a story that one of our Social
Workers, David Harrop produced,
which was about how Mental
Health Services were receiving
a high level of referrals from
adopters seeking support for
their children.
DFW Adoption has been working
on issues of delivering effective
post-adoption parenting training and
have run two such parenting courses
based on a programme developed
by Carolyn Webster Stratton, which
has been promoting and sustaining
healthy parent/child relationships
for many years. We offer input on
parent/child relationships, right at
the point when the child is ‘sorting
themselves out’ in their new family.
During the adoption process, panels
are often left speculating on the
potential ability of adopters in the
future. This will be at a point when
they may be dealing with challenges,
and parenting in crisis.
David said “We can’t just guess how
they will cope, and we must tie
them in to a practical programme of
support at the point in time when
they need it most.”
Participants who attended the
training at DFW Adoption said that
the group had been supportive
and there have been powerful
testimonies as to the progress that
adopters have made in helping
their children to feel more secure.
The nature of their relationships
has changed, and people leave the
groups feeling more optimistic about
their future relationships.
Increasingly we are saying to our
adopters that we need you to see
this post-adoptive training as an
essential and necessary part of
the whole process, rather than an
optional add-on for the future.
Children who have gone through
the adoption process will have
experienced the trauma and stress of
separation and insecurity. However,
if completing the course gives the
adopters the chance to connect to
the child, the capacity to manage and
change behaviours that you would
want to see less of must have a
significant impact on this potentially
secure and optimistic adult of the
future.
David Harrop
Adoption Social Worker
Forging new partnerships in diverse communities
DFW strive to be involved in a wide variety of community projects including the Khandan Project for the
Asian Community and more recently New Family Social who provide support for lesbian, gay, transgender
and bisexual adopters and foster carers.
The first ever lesbian and gay adoption
week was in February of this year and
as part of the week of events, social
worker Gethin Richards was interviewed
on BBC Radio Teesside to talk about the
changing face of adoption in the UK and
the role that lesbians and gay men have
in adoption.
Gethin spoke about the change
of attitude toward the lesbian
and gay community from many
corners of society and how it is
people’s individual strengths and
experience that we value.
The National Diversity Awards celebrate
unity in diversity in the UK, and as an
agency we have already received some
nominations. It would
be great to receive your
vote. You can nominate us
by going to the National
Diversity Awards home
page below and clicking
‘nominate’. It’s that easy,
so please help us to raise
our profile even higher.
Nominations close on 27th
July 2012 so please do it
soon.
We are very proud of
the links we are making
and we welcome any
comments you might
have about things we do
or could do better in the
community so please email
[email protected] with your
comments.
www.nationaldiversityawards.co.uk
Gethin Richards
Adoption Social Worker
DFW adoption parenting programme
Dave Harrop, Pauline Reed and Claire
Dale, who is not only a qualified
social worker but a play therapist
too, have now successfully run two
parenting programmes, based on
the material contained in Carolyn
Webster Stratton‘s ‘The Incredible
Years’ parenting programme.
The first group ran over 15 weeks
and the second over 6 weeks. From
the feedback received from the
participants and from the leaders’
experience, it has been agreed that the
optimal length of the course would be
9 weeks.
The adoptive parents who have already
attended the course have found the
support they received in the group
invaluable. One member of the group
said “listening to other people’s
experience, you realise you are not
alone.” The support telephone calls from
Claire between the sessions were also
very much welcomed. One member
of the group said “it was good to get
positive praise and support.” The
reflective nature of the programme
was found to be particularly helpful “looking at yourself; how you handle
things”. Another member felt that it
enabled her to listen to herself, how she
was dealing with her child’s challenging
behaviour, which helped her to use
distraction rather than getting drawn
in.” All the participants felt that they
had acquired new parenting skills by
the end of the programme and there
was considerable evidence provided
within the group that the child led daily
play sessions were helping healthy
attachments to develop between the
children and their adoptive parents.
We are currently revising the
programme so that it is more
appropriate for adopted children and it
is due to start in September. We will be
holding an Information Evening after the
summer holidays for anyone interested
in attending. If you would like to know
more, please contact either Dave or
Pauline who will be happy to answer
any questions you might have.
Pauline Reed / Dave Harrop
Adoption Social Workers
Virtual contact research goes global
Meet
the team...
Alison Hoare
Alison Hoare is due to retire this
month and has worked for DFW
Adoption for the last 7 years.
She currently works as a Birth
Parent Support Worker. DFW
provide this independent service
for Darlington local authority and
it is offered to all parents whose
children have been placed for
adoption. Birth parents can be
an isolated group and Alison
provides a confidential support
service offering to help these
parents in a variety of ways. It
can be to assist in writing letters
for post box contact, support at
meetings and most importantly
giving time to listen to their story
and experiences.
Alison has been a social worker
since the 1970’s and has three
children and one grandchild.
She has also worked as a family
mediator for over 20 years and
is an advocate for young people
with Autism.
Further collaborations between Durham University and DFW Adoption
began in October 2011. The new study is the first of its kind in the
UK and it will aim to establish the impact of virtual contact, i.e the
use of Facebook, mobile phones and instant messaging, on adoptive
families.
She said, “ It’s been a very
difficult decision to leave a
wonderful organisation like DFW
Adoption. They are such a caring,
dedicated and professional team
of people. I will miss them a lot”
Sarah said, “Since the study began I have heard stories about virtual contact
within families, both positive and negative, and how social work practice is
currently managing issues surrounding this contact both locally and nationally.
Practice responses and adoptive family experiences seem to vary widely,
making this a complex area of contact.”
Alison would like to pretend that
she is taking up mountaineering
or sky diving on retirement but
will probably concentrate on
gardening and walking the Welsh
coastal path for a start but who
knows.
She went on to say, ”The study is also going international! I am due to speak
at the Social Work Social Development: Action and Impact Conference in
Stockholm, Sweden in July 2012 to publicise the research to a wider audience
and gain feedback and ideas from leading academics in the field of social
work. My aims for the next 6 months are, to collect statistics about how often
virtual contact occurs, what happens when it does occur, and the impact of
this virtual contact on adoptive families.”
Friends and colleagues at DFW
Adoption would like to wish
Alison a very happy retirement
and we are looking forward to
the leaving do!
Programmes of seminars for 2012
DFW Adoption, in partnership
with Durham County Council local
authority and After Adoption, offer
four seminars a year as part of our
Post Adoption support.
Durham kindly hosts these and
they are held at:Durham County Council Fostering &
Adoption Resource Centre
Littleburn Business Centre
Mill Road
Langley Moor
County Durham
DH7 8ET
Tuesday 2nd October
6.30 – 8.30pm
‘Is this Adolescence or is this Adoption?’
The first seminar was held on 4th May and
was on:‘Special Needs, Education and Your Child’.
This seminar was well attended when we
ran this last year. It will include a session
on ‘Facebook’ by Beth Miller.
Monday 26th November
10am – 12.30pm
‘Attachment – what’s it all about?’
The next seminars are:Monday 2nd July
6.30 – 8.30pm
‘Making a Good Start’
This is a seminar aimed at adopters who
are waiting for a placement or who have
recently had a child or children placed
with them and will include contributions
from the DFW Adoption Team. Beth Miller
will be sharing the research she has
undertaken into Post Adoption Depression
Syndrome (PADS) and Pauline Reed will
be discussing the ‘Settling in Letter’ that
many local authorities ask adopters to
write in the early weeks of the placement.
This seminar was also of much interest to
several adopters last year. The Consultant
Psychologist employed by Durham will
again be presenting the information.
We will be sending out invitations
nearer the time. If we do not already
have an e-mail address for you, it would
be helpful if you could inform us of this
as it is of course a more cost effective
way to keep you up-to-date with news
of our post adoption events.
Pauline Reed
Adoption Social Worker
Puppy power!
We’re delighted to announce that Poppy the
puppy has joined us here at DFW as our mascot.
Poppy has been adopted by Gethin Richards and his partner
Graeme. They got her three weeks ago after a friend asked
if they would like to take care of her. She is a Bichon Frise
puppy and she’s 13 weeks old.
It sounds like they’ve got their hands full because, just like
the Andrex puppies, she has recently learned to jump up and
bite the loo role, making lots of paper trials throughout the
house.
Gethin said, “She’s a real scamp, but we love her. She’s already visited the DFW offices and dashes about saying hello to
everyone. She hasn’t learned to jump down the stairs yet, so she sits and waits to be carried down.“
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