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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Background
3. Quality of Information
4. Analysis
5. Legal Issues

1. Introduction

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that prospective adopters and long term foster carers are provided with full information on the children they are going to care for.  This policy was ratified by Children and Families Management Team 11.7.00, implemented on 2.10.00 and most recently updated in April 2007.

This policy is designed to act as guidance for Fieldwork, Adoption and Permanence and Concurrency Teams and is intended as one measure, amongst others, to help prevent placement disruption and implement good practice.

2. Background

The majority of prospective adopters and long term foster carers are having children placed with them who have suffered significant trauma, abuse or neglect which may have been further compounded by multiple moves within the care system.  In this context, providing adopters and carers with full information has become even more essential.

The Governments and our departments policies focus on ‘adoption as an important and beneficial option in the care of children’. These policies support further improvement in the provision of information to adopters and carers. The Department of Health local authority circular LAC (98)20 ‘Adoption – Achieving the Right Balance’ states:

It is essential that adoption agencies make available to adoptive parents all material facts about children to be placed in their care. It is unacceptable for adoption agencies to withhold information about a child to the extent that the picture of a child provided to prospective adopters is so lacking in substance as to bear little relation to reality. Supplying information to adoptive parents is a legal requirement. It should include details about a child’s background, history in care, including number and duration of placements, educational progress and special medical conditions. Such information is a vital tool for prospective adopters if they are to be able to understand and deal effectively with the particular needs of a child. One source of helpful information for this purpose is the material collected by local authorities as part of the ‘looked after’ review of the child.

Relevant sections of the BHCC Procedures Manual (i.e. the Placement for Adoption Chapter) clarify the need for arrangements to be made for prospective adopters and permanent carers to read, with support, the child’s case record and any other relevant written information.  It is important that this is done prior to the child being placed with the prospective adopters/permanent carers (or a foster care placement becoming long-term).

3. Quality of Information

Prospective adopters/long term foster carers are provided with a lot of verbal and written background information about a child to placed for adoption, normally the Child's Permanence Report, medical reports and life story books (if they have been completed). Clearly this is helpful but this policy details that prospective adopters/long term foster carers should be consistently provided with all relevant written information on the child they are going to care for, including access to the child’s case file and reports.

Prospective adopters/long term foster carers should also be encouraged and assisted to meet with the agency medical adviser to discuss any health issues relating to the child they are going to care for.

Lessons learned from disruptions illustrate that lack of information is often a significant factor. Adopters/permanent carers gain a fuller and more human picture of the child from reading ‘softer’ information in the case file. For example, reading the specific details about the neglect or abuse a child has suffered may help to get the reality home to an adopter/carer which may not come across so starkly in a Child's Permanence Report. This can enable them to relate to and understand the child more and assist the ‘claiming/owning’ process.

The full sharing of information is important from the child’s perspective also. If the child understands that the adopters know the 'worst there is to know' about them and still wants them in their family, the need to act out some of their more difficult behaviours in order to test out the adopters’ commitment may be lessened.

Research and best practice clarify that providing full information to prospective adopters and carers about children to be placed enhances the likelihood of a successful outcome. Government and departmental policies support such an approach.

4. Analysis

Providing full information prior to a child’s placement (or before confirming a foster placement as a long term/permanent placement) can help to provide a greater understanding of the child’s needs and prevent disruption of the placement by strengthening commitment or clarifying that a placement should not go ahead.  Clearly, this in the interests of children approved for adoption/permanence.

Linked to the above, if this measure helps to prevent disruption, it will save social workers’/managers’ time and assist better use of scarce resources, as we are painfully aware of the huge impact an adoption/permanence disruption has on all concerned. It is appreciated that prospective adopters/carers visiting offices to read files would need the assistance of the child’s social worker. Whilst this may appear to create yet another task for hard pressed workers to carry out, the ‘pay off’ later down the line should help to make it acceptable if this measure is carried out in a realistic manner.

Assisting the carers in this way should enhance collaboration and trust between social workers and adopters/carers. It will tangibly convey a partnership approach and that nothing is being hidden from them; it is likely that some adopters/carers may be aware of the High Court case in which Essex Social Services was criticised for not informing carers about the sexually abusive behaviour of a child placed with them.

Prospective adopters/carers are expected to sign a confidentiality form, at the Matching Stage. The thinking behind this is to underline the seriousness of the exercise undertaken and to have proof, if later a complaint is made, that the adopters/carers were as informed as they could have been about the child’s background; clearly this is not fool proof as significant ‘new’ information can emerge after placement.

5. Legal Issues

This policy will assist the department in meeting its statutory obligations under the Children Act 1989 and the Adoption and Children Act 2002.  Legal advice has indicated that there cannot be a 'blanket' policy in respect to disclosure of court papers.  This issue has to be dealt with on a case by case basis.  However the Legal Team are aware of the need to request such disclosure at the Final Hearing stage of Care proceedings or earlier if a Match is imminent.  In Care proceedings a Chronology is usually prepared by the Barrister for the final Hearing, this gives a good summary of the history of the case. If little else from the proceedings is shared with the adopters, this should be. Where a match is being heard by the Adoption and Permanence Panel prior to the Final Hearing, an application for Leave to disclose papers to both prospective adopters and Permanence Panel may be required.

Which Court Papers should be disclosed

To assist the Legal team in their disclosure application it would be helpful for the social worker to indicate which of the papers are required. The following are the most obvious reports to ask for:

• Expert Reports on the child / parents
• Medical  Summaries
• Analysis of current contact
• Social Worker Statements
• Chronology for Final Hearing
• Children’s Guardians’ Reports
• Transcript of Judgment

Legal advice indicates that in order to comply with Human Rights and Data Protection Legislation a record should be made on each case file why it is important to disclose all information on the file. Examples of the type of reason would be:  Given the child’s early experience of neglect, emotional, physical, sexual abuse it is essential that all information be disclosed to prospective adopters/permanent carers in order to avoid activities/behaviours which might be evocative of this early abuse, and in order for the carers to adequately care for the child.

The decision to share information of a third party nature is clearly a balancing act between the needs of the child, the needs of the adopters to know (in order to care adequately for the child) and the right to privacy for the third party.  Legal advice indicates that where it is possible to obtain consent from third parties to the sharing of information provided by them or about them, then this should be sought.  Where this is not possible, this should be recorded on the file.  A decision should then be made to override that consideration in favour of the needs of the child.  Where social workers are unclear as to whether they can share a piece of information, legal advice should be obtained and recorded.

End