Dear Prime Minister,

Ref: Adoption with Humanity’s call for a “National Adoption Authority”

As you are aware, the adoption system in this country is in crisis and in dire need of reform. We were very pleased to hear you speak out on the subject in your speech at the Conservative Party Conference this year, and welcome your support for a reform of the system.

We have recently met with Mr Tim Loughton MP and are grateful for his plans for reform, however we strongly believe that there is an imperative need for the government to go one step further and create a “regulator” – a body which would ensure the proposed reforms are met; one that would be able to deal with everything from the delays and conflicts in the courts, to the Department of Education, as well as the local authorities.

We believe that whilst the government’s proposals are a good start, without taking on the challenges of the lack of authority and unity of purpose of the various parts of the adoption system, the changes will be nothing more than a token effort resembling that of the previous government’s call for reform ten years ago.

This “Regulator” or National Adoption Authority (NAA) as we would suggest, would bring together the social work and justice systems, and create a rational control structure to ensure co-operation between these two parts of the state. This will guarantee that current and future policies are made to happen and their success measured. We believe that only by setting up a National Adoption Authority will the government be able to claim its authority over adoption practices.

The rationale behind calling for an “Authority” is simple. It is, we believe, the only way that the divergent interests and policies from different departments can be brought into harmony and one set of laws, regulations and guidelines be imposed. Rather than being invested in an individual it would bring together, via a controlling mixed representative body, all the best thinking in adoption law and practice.

The NAA will not be a new “quango”, instead it will replace the team within the DoE with a structure that would have authority over local authorities, voluntary adoption agencies and the courts to enforce government policies. To confirm this is successful a much stronger version of the “inspection” function of OFSTED will need to be created as part of the NAA.

We would like to clarify that it is a National Adoption Authority (and not Agency) that we are proposing. Setting up a National Adoption Agency would involve considerable time and expense, and be in danger of replicating the same attitudes and behaviours that are causing problems in the current system.

We have set up a petition on the government site, a copy of which is enclosed, and are calling for support in our campaign.

Please see the enclosed document “Our Proposed Solution to the Adoption Crisis” for a fuller explanation and more details can be found on our website www.adoptionwithhumanity.co.uk.

We thank you for your time in considering our suggestion and hope for your support.

Please sign our Adoption with Humanity petition urging immediate reforms and the setting up of a National Adoption Authority.

This poster appears in today’s Daily Telegraph.

It was horrible. It made you feel small. And useless. That’s nothing compared to how it feels to not be adopted. As I write adoption in the UK is in a sadly dysfunctional state. The system is broken and it means that there are thousands of children awaiting adoption- 4000 approximately at present. In the past year, there were less than 300 adoptions.

It’s not for lack of potential parents either. Each year there are hundreds of couples who apply and go through one of the most searching processes just to be allowed to adopt. And often they give up.

Why? Because local authorities and councils are applying rules of their own making, something is wrong. The authority vacuum and the lack of any leadership on the part of the government means that it takes at least 2 years and 7 months for a child to be adopted. But first they have to be removed from the family that can’t or won’t look after them. And that isn’t happening because the system thinks that keeping a child in a family that can’t or won’t love them is better than finding them someone who will.

By the time a child is adopted they may be around four years old.

By the time a child reaches five, it is put into the too hard basket and is less likely to be adopted.

And if you’re a black or mixed race child, forget it. It probably won’t happen.

These children will have suffered first at the hands of a family that neglected them and secondly at the hands of social workers and local authorities who simply have no motivation to place children with new families. Instead they try to keep them in the place that has made their childhood a memorable one for the wrong reasons.

You can make a difference. Please, please respond to this by clicking here and signing our petition and urging your friends and colleagues to do the same.

For their sake.

It is, in fact, both great news to have such support and sad at the same time that it has come to this.

It is also sad that I believe we are unfortunately not getting the support we were hoping for from the government. So far what we have heard from them is mostly talk. And wishy washy attempts to change the mentality of the social workers.

Meantime, we wait to see if another attempt to change attitudes which we will never be able to measure is successful and young lives, thousands of them will hang in the balance.

Hopefully in a few weeks, during National Adoption Week, we will be able to make our voice heard loud and clear. For the children’s sake.

However, it is a day tinged with sadness following the death of one of the greatest men, Steve Jobs, a perfect example of how adoption can work beautifully. Please read about it here.

Yet we are still agonising over whether adoption should or not be first choice for children languishing in care.

This morning I was on the Vanessa Feltz show on BBC radio discussing the merits of mixed race families with her. This afternoon on ITN London Tonight. I was yet again calling on David Cameron to step up to the challenge facing thousands of children in care today. During his Conservative Party conference speech this week, he said “this might not be the biggest issue facing this country but it is the biggest issue facing these children”.

I am asking the father in him to make this his biggest issue to solve. Now. For their sake.

You can help too by signing our e-petition which urges the government to take action.

“David Cameron needs to lead on this issue and our focus should be to put children first. That means doing away with a system that keeps children in neglect until it is often too late and focuses plainly and squarely on their needs. That won’t happen until we see adoption as a first resort.”

Happily, I read in today’s Times that he plans to “tear up Britain’s adoption rules and end the scandal of thousands of children lost in the care system”.

We will have to wait and see how far he plans to go, but I very much hope the government will listen and consider our Adoption with Humanity proposal when preparing their policy on adoption reforms. Children’s lives and their happiness depend on it.

Please do look out for me on ITV London this evening at 6pm where I will be talking about this.

And please do sign our petition if you share our views too about making desperately needed changes to the present adoption system. You can sign it here.

Here is a link to my full interview with the Standard.

Like yesterday, the situation is so dramatic that it will require dramatic intervention.

Too much time has passed and too little has happened. Tony Blair tried to help the issue by setting adoption targets. It helped a little – but too little to make a real difference and we know targets don’t work.

Tim Loughton has introduced some new guidelines to allow white parents to adopt non-white children. These rules are being ignored by local authorities and social workers. The reality is the intervention of the government has been too little too late. And let’s face it, there is no compunction on the part of local authorities to follow these passive guidelines. There is no comeback or reinforcement from the government.

Adoption with Humanity will soon be launching a petition to ask the government to intervene in a way that will require local authorities and others to act. I will let you know more soon. Because our present system is more than stupid, it is immoral. In a world where thousands of children languish in care while there are safe, loving families who want them, we have to do something. And we are going to try our very best.