Adoption should be a priority

Posted by Francesca on Jun 8, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments I was delighted to learn of a recommendation that social workers most provide Ofsted inspectors with evidence that they have always considered adoption for each child in care, and not just as “an option of last resort”. This was reported in The Times yesterday by Social Affairs Correspondent Rosemary Bennett who used my experiences as a case study saying: “Ofsted’s new...
read more

My disappointment with Best

Posted by Francesca on Jun 8, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments I woke up this morning expecting to see an interview I’d done with ‘Best’ magazine. I was really looking forward to it as it meant that the issues around adoption would be given visibility again. And then I saw the headline and my heart sank. “Yes we bought our dream family but don’t judge us.” This wasn’t me. It wasn’t our story: central to our decision to adopt was the view that we we not buy...
read more

Adoption and Home Study

Posted by Francesca on May 6, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments The next instalment from Mexican Takeaway Chapter 2, Does Your Cat Speak Spanish? “Do I look OK?” Rick said as he came into the bedroom, wearing his cream suit and his best tie. “Uh oh. Cream?” “I don’t want to wear a dark one. It doesn’t seem friendly enough; too businesslike. They might think I don’t have time for children if I wear that.” I’d never seen Rick this anxious. He was normally so...
read more

“Too many children out there reaching out to us …”

Posted by Francesca on May 5, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Continuing chapter 1, Too White To Adopt Pretty soon everything we did seemed to lead to the question of  having a family and how we should do it. Watching documentaries about disaster or famine, seeing the faces of children who were starving or homeless or orphaned by war, was a cue for me to put forward my views. “There are just so many children out there reaching out to us. You are right,” he...
read more

Mexican Takeaway – Too White To Adopt

Posted by Francesca on May 4, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Mexican Takeaway This book is based on true events. However, the names of all persons connected to our adoption are fictitious. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The opening instalment from the first chapter, Too White To Adopt. June 5, 2008 The queue in the customs hall at Heathrow was long, full of weary and bad-tempered travellers, but I didn’t care. I...
read more

Bruce Oldfield speaks out about adoption

Posted by Francesca on Apr 28, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Bruce Oldfield, the couture dress designer kindly contributed the foreword to my book. He reflects on his experiences as a foster child and the “obsessive bureaucracy” of our adoption system in the UK which is failing children. This is what he wrote: Common sense might suggest that the route to adoption should be as uncomplicated as possible but we now have a situation in the UK...
read more