NSW Proposed shift towards adoption - Growing Family

A family and a home for foster children ?is an article by Josephine Tovey that was released today. The Family and Community Services Minister, Pru Goward, is recommending a number of changes to the current Care Act including?

• recognizing adoption as the third preferred option (after restoration, or familial placement), instead of handing parental responsibility to the minister (or making the child a "ward of the state" as is the current practice)
• legislating a 6 month - 1 year maximum time frame for pursuing restoration (currently there is no set time frame)
• allowing foster carers to be assessed for adoption during their initial assessment process (at the moment you need to have a child in your care for two years before you can begin to approach the court in hopes to adopt them)

Josephine Tovey's article does a great job of explaining how fundamentally different being a foster child and being a permanently adopted family member can be for a child.?

''It's a little bit like if you're living with somebody, and then you marry them ? you don't love them any more, but there's a real security that comes with it..Nothing changed, but then everything changed,'' says foster, now adoptive mother Patricia Economos.?

As a foster parent you do not have complete authority when it comes to making decision on behalf of your child. You must apply for court permission to travel overseas, months in advance. You must update permission to start your child on certain medications. Ultimately, the minister has parental responsibility, even if you are pouring your heart and soul into being a great parent.

Minister Goward is hoping that these measures will encourage more adoptions in NSW. The current adoption rates come as quite a shock to someone with a U.S. based experience of adoption. According to Josephine Tovey's research, "There were 65 children adopted from out-of-home care in 2011-12, a rise from 45 the year before. There were 16 local adoptions and 46 international adoptions, down from 70 in 2010-11."

Contrasting those 65 children with the 18,000 children in out-of-home-care in NSW, it seems clear to me that a long term loving family for these children, most of whom will not be restored to family, is just good sense.?

If these measures had been in place for little B, he would have been spared the multiple placements he has been rotated through, would have spend much less overall time in care, and if the court didn't rule for restoration, would most likely already be settled into his permanent family.?

Each of those 18,000 is a real child, with a real story. I applaud Minister Goward for having the courage to get in the thick of an established system to advocate for change.

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Source: http://growingfamily.typepad.com/growing_family/2012/11/nsw-proposed-shift-towards-adoption.html

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