Adoption UK has provided expert advice in the end pages of Baby Love, theheart-breaking, compelling, and timely new novel from best-selling author Jacqueline Wilson, out today, 17th March 2022.
Set in 1960, Baby Love is a story for older readers (aged 12+) about teen pregnancy, family trouble and unlikely friendships.
At the end of the novel, Adoption UK provides the reader with context around how both societal attitudes and adoption have changed since the 1960s. It also highlights some of the issues adopted people still experience today – including identity and the complexities of having two families – and signposts anyone affected by any of the topics raised in the novel, to Adoption UK’s helpline.
In Baby Love, Wilson – best known for her much-loved character, Tracy Beaker – recreates the world of suburban 1960, when so many issues were swept under the carpet, and most tragically, when many young mothers were pressured to give up their babies because they were unmarried.
The book follows Laura, whose life changes forever after a French exchange student insists on walking her home one afternoon.
When her family discover Laura is pregnant, they send her away to a Mother and Baby Home to have her baby given up for adoption.
Alison Woodhead, Adoption UK’s Director of Public Affairs and Communications said: “We are so proud to be included in this moving book about teenage pregnancy, motherhood, and adoption in the 1960s, which gives a voice to girls like Laura, who had little choice in how their lives turned out.
“Thankfully, adoption has changed radically since then. Today, a child is only placed for adoption when it is not safe for them to stay with their birth family because of abuse, violence, or neglect. But we owe it to these women and their children to face up to the wrong that was done to them in different times.
“What happened to them is heart-breaking and indefensible which is why we once again call on the Government to do the right thing and apologise to them.”
Broadcast legend Toby Anstis has opened up about challenges he faced as an adopted young person.He is backing Adoption UK’s bid to establish the UK’s first specialist youth service for adopted young people.
The HEART presenter, who was adopted as a baby, told how he “never quite felt good enough” and how he suffered from insecurity.
Adoption UK’s Chance to Thrive programme will help adopted young people share experiences, gain new skills and make connections with others who understand them.
Toby is fronting Adoption UK’s Christmas appeal to raise funds for the charity’s Chance to Thrive programme, which hopes to establish a national youth service across the whole of the UK over the next three years.
Toby said: “I occasionally got bullied at school for being adopted. I was also dealing with and overcoming the feelings of being different and not wanting to be rejected. It’s for these reasons that this campaign is very close to my heart.
“When you are adopted, you can sometimes feel like you are not quite good enough. Overall, I am a very strong person but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had insecurities that have had a major impact on my life over the years”
Earlier this year Adoption UK published its Adoption Barometer report which reveals two-thirds (64%) of adopted people aged 16+ have sought help with their mental health.
The report also found that almost half (46%) of adopted people aged 16-25 were involved with mental health services in 2020, compared to the national figure of 17%. Yet most say they have been unable to access the support they need. Problems are often compounded by children falling through the cracks between child and adult services.
The Chance to Thrive programme aims to reduce these numbers through specialist engagement activities. Adoption UK’s CEO Sue Armstrong Brown said: “We urgently need to develop services which help adopted young people build resilience and improve their life chances.”
Toby, who is about to celebrate his 30th year in show business, started his career in 1992 fronting and appearing on countless TV shows and live events. He played Teen Angel in Grease, in the West End before broadcasting for Heart for a record 20 years.
Three quarters of the children adopted have been removed from their birth families due to abuse or neglect. Early trauma affects a young person’s mental health, ability to trust and future chances.
Toby added: “Give big to the Big Give to help adopted young people create a positive future that is not determined by their past.” To donate click here: bit.ly/3kvObl8
Thousands of children and young people living with a brain condition caused by exposure to alcohol while in the womb are in desperate need of dedicated and joined up support.
The charity Adoption UK is calling for each nation of the UK to provide a government funded Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in every nation of the UK.
Caused by the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy, FASD is the most known cause of neurodevelopmental disability and birth defects in the UK – but it often goes unrecognised.
FASD could affect up to 5% of the population but it is estimated a third* of adopted children have the condition. Alcohol misuse is one of the main reasons children are taken into care but many adopted children with FASD will have come from families where there was drinking during pregnancy, but not to access, and where alcohol was not the main reason for them entering care.
Adoption UK’s 2020 Adoption Barometer report revealed one-in-four adopted children are either diagnosed with, or suspected to have, FASD. More than half of families polled had waited two years or longer for a diagnosis, and more than three-quarters felt healthcare professionals lacked basic knowledge about the condition, even though FASD is more common than autism.
Scotland leads the way in the UK, in terms of diagnosis, support, and awareness of FASD. The creation of the FASD Hub Scotland in 2019, funded by the Scottish Government and managed by Adoption UK, quickly established itself as a go-to resource for parents and carers seeking to gain support, information, signposting, training, and to navigate their way through the diagnosis process.
The SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) Guidelines (2019) means children and young people in Scotland now have a route to diagnosis. The guidelines have since been adopted in England where they are awaiting release as the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) quality standards for FASD.
Ruth Cliff has been unable to get an FASD assessment for her son, who she adopted 16 years ago, despite knowing his birth mother used alcohol throughout her pregnancy.
Ruth, who lives in England, said: “We were referred to a paediatrician who told me they didn’t have the expertise to assess for FASD and there was no one in our area who could do it either. I asked my local authority to fund an assessment via the Adoption Support Fund, but this was turned down.
“Finding the right support for my son has completely taken over my life, so to have a specialist one-stop-shop like the hub in Scotland, where people truly understand FASD, would be life-changing.”
Adoption UK is marking International FASD Awareness Day, by calling on Stormont, the Welsh Government and Westminster to replicate the success of the FASD Hub Scotland in each nation.
The charity is also calling on the Scottish Government to commit to the long-term funding of the FASD Hub Scotland.
Sue Armstrong Brown, Adoption UK’s CEO, said: “Great strides have been made in Scotland around FASD but we’ve still a long way to go to ensure individuals with FASD and their families receive the support they so urgently need. Every child entering the care system must be screened for FASD.”
Adoption UK will be launching an animated film today, made in collaboration with parents, carers and young people, some of whom have FASD. Conor, aged 13, who has FASD, provided the film’s voiceover.
Adoption UK in Scotland is warning of a mental health emergency amongst some of the country’s most vulnerable children, caused by failings in a system that is not set up to meet their needs.
This year’s Adoption Barometer report reveals that two-thirds (64%) of people in the UK aged 16+ have sought help with their mental health, and the numbers are rising. In Scotland, more than half (51%) of adopted people aged 16-25 were involved with mental health services in 2020. Yet most say they have been unable to access the support they need.
Most adopted young people suffered abuse, neglect or violence in their early years, with lasting impacts on relationships, learning and health, leaving their adoptive families to pick up the pieces when professional support is not provided.
Fiona Aitken, Adoption UK Director of Scotland, said: “For the third year running, over two-thirds of Scottish Barometer respondents said they face an ongoing struggle for support.
“Scottish children and families are being failed by a system that does not provide the ongoing help and support children need to overcome early experiences, and the lifelong impact that adoption has then fades into the background.
“We owe it to these children and their families to provide ongoing support throughout their lives, to help them to achieve the best possible outcomes that they deserve.”
The survey results highlight the consequences of failure to provide early and consistent support for adopted young people.
More than a third (38%) of adopted 16-25-year-olds in Scotland were not in positive destinations (education, employment or training) at the end of 2020. Involvement in high-risk and criminal activities has steadily increased since the first Adoption Barometer in 2019.
Problems are often compounded by children falling through the cracks between child and adult services. Almost three-quarters of parents in the UK said their child’s support reduced or ceased when they aged out of services for adolescents.
Julian Thomson, aged 29, said: “When I was 13 I was diagnosed with mild depression, but my GP was unwilling to prescribe antidepressants due to my age.
“There were a very narrow range of options available at that time, and it didn’t help that my medical records weren’t passed on after I was adopted. Because of that, a whole host of things were missed – it was like I didn’t have a life before adoption.
“Neither I nor my adoptive family were offered any real mental health support after that. I did have some sessions with an NHS counsellor, but that didn’t get to the root of the problem and I feel the sessions were not focused on trauma. It was only when I was 27 that I was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stemming from historical abuse.
“I am currently going through the process of being diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder. Had this been picked up when I was in care it may not have impacted upon my life the way it did. I believe there is a real need for psychological assessment for all adopted children.”
The Barometer survey also shows that contact with birth family often looms large during adolescence and early adulthood.
In Scotland, 28% of 13-18-year-olds had direct contact with a birth family member outside of any formal agreement. For some, this has devastating consequences for mental health and family stability.
When families do get support, their assessments of its quality and the impact on their family have increased on all indicators since last year - a considerable achievement considering the pandemic.
In Scotland, parents who had accessed Adoption UK services said the support they received had been crucial to their wellbeing. Adopter experiences in Wales have improved at both approvals and matching stage, and among families with older children, due to investment in adoption services in 2019.
The emergency Covid adoption support fund in England has been widely praised by families.
Fiona Aitken added: “This year presents real opportunities to re-set support for adoptive families.
“The Promise to Scotland’s Care Experienced children as a result of the Independent Care Review and the debate about Covid recovery are real opportunities to improve our systems and services for families to ensure our more vulnerable children receive an equal chance in life.”
Adoption UK is setting out a six-point plan to improve the life chances of adopted young people. It includes multi-disciplinary assessments and support plans for every child placed for adoption and the extension of adoption services to at least age 26.
The lives of some of the UK’s most vulnerable children are being devastated by a string of missed opportunities to provide them with timely and adequate support, a new report reveals today.
The Adoption Barometer, published by charity Adoption UK, also describes the dramatic impact the right support can have. Now in its second year, the Barometer is based on the biggest ever survey of adopters. This year, 5,000 people responded to the survey.
One of the main themes to emerge is the failure in diagnosing and treating brain damage caused by children being exposed to alcohol in the womb. The report reveals more than one in three adopted children in Scotland (35%) are either diagnosed with or suspected to have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
Almost two thirds (63%) of families polled in Scotland had waited two years or longer for a diagnosis, and more than half (53%) felt healthcare professionals lacked even basic knowledge about the condition, even though FASD is more common in the general population than autism.
Adoptive mother Gemma (below) said: “When Isabelle came to us at eight months-old she was described as a perfect baby. At two and a half she started headbutting, kicking and biting. Then she became obsessed with sharp knives.
“She told me she wanted to ‘cut me open and see me bleed’. We went to countless GPs, health visitors and social workers but we got nowhere. We finally got a diagnosis of FASD when she was four years old. It has made a huge difference to the support we’ve been able to access.”
Scotland is leading the field in the UK, as the first nation to establish an FASD diagnostic pathway. In 2019 the Scottish Government backed Adoption UK in Scotland to launch FASD Hub Scotland, supporting all parents and carers of people who were, or may have been, exposed to alcohol during pregnancy, including Gemma and her family.
The service includes a helpline, online support communities, one to one support, access to enhanced therapeutic support, training and information, as well as training and resources for professionals.
FASD Hub Scotland Project Manager, Aliy Brown, says: “During the month of September (FASD Month) we have been working closely with professionals within Scotland, other parts of the UK and further afield to drive the campaign around the need for awareness of FASD, both for prevention as well as support for families, which is so badly needed, as evidenced in the report.
“We are committed to doing everything we can to see the condition recognised in the same way the other neuro-diverse conditions are, and enable both individuals and their families to access early diagnosis, support and intervention to promote positive outcomes for life.”
Around three-quarters of adopted children experienced violence, abuse or neglect while living with their birth families, often with life-long impacts on their relationships, their health and their ability to learn. Despite the considerable challenges, the report shows that adopters remain positive and resilient – 73% of respondents in Scotland would encourage others to consider adoption.
But failures in policy and practice and missed opportunities to intervene mean that problems often build into a crisis. Almost half (48%) of families with older children report severe challenges, such as being drawn into criminally exploitative behaviour, including child sexual exploitation and county lines activities.
Almost two thirds (62%) of respondents from Scotland with secondary aged children anticipate they will leave school with few or no qualifications because they lacked the right support.
Director of Adoption UK Scotland, Fiona Aitken, said: “It is crucial that adoptive families are given the right support from day one, from both a moral and economic perspective.
“The survey shows 68% of adoptive families had no support plan in place, which we know can lead to crisis situations. The cost of a family breakdown is too high for all involved, particularly the children who have already experienced so much.”
The Adoption Barometer also assesses the government policies that regulate adoption. Welsh policies scored best, with three areas of policy scoring ‘good’. However, all nations score poorly in at least one area of policy. Policy relating to finding families for children scores best across the board.
Policy relating to FASD scores worst, with all nations assessed as ‘poor’, and adopter experiences also ‘poor’ in all nations, however Scotland does come across better than the other three nations in respect of their nationwide strategy.
There has been some progress since last year’s Barometer, including the extension of the English Adoption Support Fund (ASF) and the first experimental data collection on school exclusions in England, both of which were recommendations from last year’s report. In Wales there has been a £2.3m investment in adoption services.
Although respondents in Scotland were most likely to consider their social worker to be knowledgeable and understanding they were least likely to be satisfied with the range of support services on offer, perhaps reflecting the comparatively low proportion who were able to access enhanced support services.
Currently all support services are expected to be provided by agencies, with the exception of the Big Lottery Funded Therapeutic and Education Support Services in Adoption (TESSA), hosted and provided by Adoption UK Scotland.
The Adoption Barometer calls on the governments in all four nations of the UK to provide detailed therapeutic assessments for every child before they arrive in their new family, with up to date support plans to be maintained into early adulthood.
A “huge and concerning” college drop-out rate among adopted young people has led Adoption UK to call for governments in all four nations of the UK to rethink our education system.
Adoption UK is calling on the governments in all four nations of the UK to provide additional funding and resources to help schools support those children who will struggle most, when educational settings re-open, post Covid-19 lockdown.
Half of the parents who completed Adoption UK’s Home learning during Covid-19 lockdown report said their child is experiencing emotional distress and anxiety, while around a third (31%) said they are experiencing an increase in violence, or aggression, from their child.
Care experienced children are among the most vulnerable in the country due to their traumatic start in life. But despite this, of those who are currently home-based during lockdown, 85% are not receiving any additional support in respect of their care-experienced status, the survey found.
Rebecca Brooks, author of the report, said: “These children have traumatic life experiences that can make learning and mental health a herculean struggle during normal times, let alone during a global pandemic.
“School closures and lockdown are exacerbating learning and emotional problems, including an increase in violent behaviour. Schools are struggling to support their pupils with highest needs.”
Mrs Brooks added: “This is why we’re urging the governments across the UK to provide schools with the funding they will desperately need to help these children with their return to school – supporting not only their learning, but also their wellbeing.”
However, the report also shows that some families with care-experienced children are clearly thriving during lockdown. Around half of the respondents who completed the survey said their family relationships are improving and the same proportion of those parenting secondary aged children, said their children are calmer.
To find out about the impact of school closures on care experienced children, Adoption UK ran a week-long survey in April for parents and carers of care-experienced children who would normally be in school. The UK-wide survey received 660 valid responses.
Previous Adoption UK research has shown that adopted children, on average, achieve significantly less well in exams than their peers, are more likely to have a range of higher-level learning needs and are 20 times more likely to be permanently excluded when compared to their peers.
Adoption UK today publishes The Adoption Barometer revealing that adopted children in Scotland are more than twice as likely not to be in employment, education or training (NEET) as their peers; 31% of them have had contact with the criminal justice system and 41% have needed help from mental health services.
Three quarters of adopted children have suffered significant violence, abuse or neglect in their birth families, with a lasting impact that extends into early childhood and affects life chances, placing huge emotional and often financial strain on adoptive families. There are at least 55,000 adoptive families in the UK.
The Adoption Barometer reveals that while advances have been made in recruitment and preparation of adopters, government policies are still not addressing the heart of the challenges faced by adoptive families, and especially families with older children.
Adoption UK surveyed around 3,500 families across the UK, [Scotland: 330], asking them to reflect on their experiences during 2018. The charity also assessed national policy relating to adoptive families at various stages of their adoption journey.
The report reveals that 85% of families in Scotland would encourage others to adopt, despite 62% facing a continual struggle for support.
Fiona Aitken, Director of Adoption UK in Scotland, said: “There is a clear message here from Scottish adoptive families that they are optimistic about the outcomes of their children, despite the lack of consistent adoption support offered across Scotland.
“We know there are areas where families receive the help they are asking for, and we are striving to ensure that more families can access these. Adoption is not always a straightforward happy ending for children – we need to acknowledge that many children will require help to thrive within their families because of their early experiences.”
All four nations score ‘poor’ in at least one area of policy, with every nation having further to go to meet the policy needs of adoptive families. Scotland scores reflect poorly across the board due to lack of national consistency, in particular in relation to adoption support.
Policy relating to finding families for children scores best across the board. Policy relating to the education of adopted children scores worst. Adopters’ experiences in Wales scored best, and were at similar levels in the other three nations.
Other key themes to emerge from The Adoption Barometer include: high levels of child-to-parent violence, ill-planned and badly-supported contact arrangements with birth families; high rates of health problems including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and mental ill health; and large numbers of families resorting to home education because the formal school system is letting their children down.
Adoption UK is calling for a radical new deal for adoptive families, which provides the support they need to help re-write their children’s futures. This includes detailed therapeutic assessments for every child before they arrive in their new family, with accompanying fully-costed support plans, to be maintained and reviewed into early adulthood. In Scotland AUK is recommending ring-fenced adoption support.
Children’s Minister Maree Todd said: “We welcome the finding that 85% of families in Scotland who have gone through the adoption process would encourage others to do the same.
“We know that adoption is making a positive difference, but we also know that there is more to do. The Independent Care Review will be key in deciding the next steps in looking at the legislation, practices, culture and ethos of the system for care experienced children.
“I am grateful to Adoption UK Scotland for highlighting these important issues and look forward to working together to ensure that all our adopted young people have the opportunity to fulfil their full potential.”
The charity Adoption UK has been awarded funding from The National Lottery Community Fund to set up a bold new project that will benefit thousands of families in England, Scotland and Wales.
