Core

It's the end of the busiest year that I've ever had and following National Adoption Week I put my brain in neutral to try to get some space while I crack on with life.

When my mind is idling I find ideas bubble up for blogs and posts but I've been resolute and steered clear of some of the big questions that surface.

However, I can't seem to get away from this idea that we need a universal adoption support service that really meets the needs of adopted children.

This is not a criticism of the Adoption Support Fund, if anything that is an attempt by government to provide for our children because some LAs are not. Of course, the good ones always have supported children and families and had a good core service. They have used the ASF wonderfully but there are other LAs that have never done so well and they have struggled to utilise or facilitate the ASF.

The ASF is not perfect and I could list the failings, I'm many things but I'm not an apologist for the Department for Education but on balance I'd argue that it's done much more good than harm.

My gripe is the core service offer of post adoption teams, I want local authorities and the Regional Adoption Agencies, when they come, to provide a good core service.

Recent reports have again highlighted the vulnerabilities and challenges of adoptees and adopters. It's like lots of research, bleeding obvious to anyone who's spent more than ten minutes looking at the issues.  It's beyond doubt that the cohort of adoptees within a UK context are amongst the most vulnerable in our society. In context of all UK children they're a small group but in relation to Adverse Childhood Experiences they punch way above their weight. The children who are adopted today have had to have had the worst of life to reach the threshold for adoption.

So, if you're going to have an adoption service then tool it up to do the job not just assess, match and out the door. Because we will come back and like it or loath it adopters can be pretty fearsome advocates and lobbyists.

Quietly I've been disgruntled, I see courses being offered in this and that giving support to families, interventions and programmes designed to take the ASF money but I can't help but feel they should be part of the core service of PAS teams. Child on Parent Violence affects up to 30% of adopters it's prevalence justifies support being part of the PAS core service. Challenges with school impact a huge proportion of adopted children they support needs to be part of the core service. Therapeutic parenting programmes, again should be build into the core services. Some families need ongoing professional supervision, a safe space not a stolen minute with the child's therapist on the way into a meeting. Supervision would be an excellent addition to this core service. I could go on, filial therapy, play therapy etc. All of them should be core services not money making schemes.

I read a tweet* from  @RealSWTutor this week that provoked me to stop and think a little differently. It was about something else but but paraphrased it turned to this in my head.

'Adoption isn't a hurdle that must be overcome but a trauma that must be supported'

Overstated? Yes, for some but not all.

I hope to see that one day we will move away from 'interventions' to support that's ongoing and enduring.  That the core services will be fit for purpose, a purpose that many of understand saves money and in a funding environment where we expect more for less this core service is an investment.


No punchlines I'm afraid just living in hope.




*'[S]ocial workers will struggle to gain trust within a system that sees domestic abuse as a hurdle that mothers must overcome, rather than a trauma through which they should be supported.' Highly recommended reading: https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjsw/bcx125/4616221?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Disempowerment

On my desk at work there's a little book of social work theories and models. I keep it there to bamboozle the student social workers with my bredth and depth of knowledge or at least to show them I can read. I browse it occasionally to inspire thought. 

One of the cornerstones of social work thought and practice is empowerment:

 "the means by which individuals, groups and/or communities become able to take control of their circumstances and achieve their own goals , thereby being able to work towards helping themselves and others to maximize the quality of their lives." Adams

I've been pondering power and adopters for a while to be honest I've lots of thoughts so this is just a bit. 

Adopters are generally doing ok in life at the moment that they pick up the phone to start on the process of adoption, in fact it's a prerequisite that you've got to have your stuff together. Of course we've all lived a little and have our bruises etc but generally we are the captains of our own ships. 

In effect we're people who don't need empowering as we're actually quite empowered. But we then surrender some of the key elements of that empowerment to achieve our goal of adoption. Social Workers make appointments and hijack our diaries, we submit to the will of approval panels, all unpicking the sense of control that we had in our lives. We then wait by the phone for the news of potential matches or we trawl through the online catalogues of children that we're allowed to view. Of course we again submit to the will of Social Workers who deem us as a good or unsuitable match. I could go on, matching, introductions, placement, SW visits, court dates and then finally adoption orders. 

The adoption process removes our control of our own circumstances and we have to rely on others to achieve our goals it is the exact definition of disempowerment. A very tricky feeling and for many of us a very new feeling. 

One part of the joys of the court hearing at the end of the adoption legal journey is the sense that you are again the master of your own destiny. That's the end of that. 

Of course, some or many of us find that we're progressively drawn back into a world were we surrender our control and are effectively disempowered. Education, health and mental health services, post adoption support all necessary services for our children but we again feel the frustration as we give control over to professionals the may or may not 'get it' or care or be capable. Often we cannot do anything, we would if we could, but we're reduced to waiting by the phone.

To feel disempowered is to be isolated without hope and lost, not a nice place and that is often compounded by challenging behaviour of our children. A grim reality for many families. 
It's a unique proposition for Social Workers as well, we're removing a sense of agency and control and replacing it with dependency and barriers. Of course we're working to a goal but to get that we take them along this path. 

Perhaps this in an extreme view and of course others may feel differently, so if that's you then just ignore me.  Of course we could talk about how caring for tricky children is also disempowering in the extreme but that's for another day.

Well this is a  cheery little post isn't it? I guess knowing what's driving my inner challenges helps me navigate them. 






*To be clear I'm not an Adoption Social Worker.