Welsh councils urged to track failed adoptions

Councils in Wales should track the number of adoptions which fail according to an Adoption UK report.

The recommendation comes after authors Ann Bell and Marja Kempenaar set out to discover why approximately one in five adoptions fail. While the figures are similar for England, adoptions are rising in Wales compared with a 15% drop in England.

“There appears to be no national, systematic collation of the numbers of disruptions, nor learning from the findings from disruption reviews,” the report stated.

“The Welsh Assembly should track and record the disruption and family breakdown rates for children placed for adoption from the care system, using this as a key indicator of adoption outcomes.”

Adoptive families are “fragile” in the beginning, the authors said, and recommended that the concept of “re-parenting” or “therapeutic parenting” of adopted children needed to be accepted and underpinned by the legislation and guidance which directed the work of adoption agencies and support agencies.

All professionals involved in adoption should also have training on the current research and knowledge regarding the treatment of early trauma and neglect as well as the impact of attachment disorders on child development and behaviour. Adopted children should also have the same access to child and adolescent mental health services as looked after children, the report said.

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