Meeting of the Parliament 22 November 2016
I thank the minister for that. We need to look at the situation. Sometimes, meetings are arranged by social workers but do not fit for the family or are cancelled at short notice.
We need to look at the best interests of the child and keep the process moving forward, but we also have to remember how hard it sometimes is for the birth mother or birth family to give up their child. We perhaps also need to look at the support that we give them as they go through that process.
Once the adoption process has happened, families face many issues. Roughly a third of adoption cases go very smoothly and well, and a third are rocky, but the family come through it. Unfortunately, however, a third end up with further difficult issues.
As has been highlighted, attachment is important. Young children, whether or not they are adopted, often face attachment issues—I have seen that having stood in the past four months in a playground waiting for a primary 1 child. Adopted children often have greater attachment issues. As has been said, we need to encourage headteachers and local authorities to put in the appropriate resources so that teachers are aware of the issues and know how to deal with them.
In secondary schools, teenagers start to become more aware of themselves and they start to ask questions. It happens with any teenager, but a teenager who has been adopted will have questions such as, “Where have I come from?”, “What was my birth mother like?”, “Where do I belong?” and, “Will I turn out like my birth parents?” Those are good and fair questions, so we need to ensure that appropriate support is given to children as they go through that.
We must also acknowledge that adoption can lead to education problems. We are making progress on that, although 14 per cent of looked-after school leavers still have no qualifications. That figure is simply too high. We need to work to ensure that children who have been adopted are given education that meets their needs, and that they are given the support that they require. We are talking about the most vulnerable people in our society.
The good news is that adoption works for children. Adoption UK has quoted a letter from an older lady in which she says:
“What people don’t seem to understand is that family doesn’t have to be blood; loyalty, faith, and kindness are what makes a family”.
We can make that true in thousands of lives. She goes on to say that, throughout her life, she has learned the important lesson that
“love is the most precious thing in the world to me”.
That is what we want to say to every child in our society today—that love is the most important thing. We need to do that by supporting the parents who go through the adoption process and by supporting the families who put themselves forward. We have to ensure that local authorities, schools, social work and national legislation all work towards that.
I am happy to support the Government motion.