Lauren Novak: Policy change won’t lead to hundreds of adoptions or relieve massive pressure on the system

Changing South Australia’s adoption policies won’t lead to hundreds of adoptions or relieve massive pressure on the system, writes Lauren Novak.

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One thing that puts some people off becoming a foster carer is the fear they will take a child into their home, fall in love with them — and then have to send them back to their birth parents.

Some probably wish they could permanently adopt that child from the outset but that’s not how our system works.

Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson has signalled she wants to make adoption more common but it should be remembered this would not bypass fostering.

An updated policy, expected next year, will encourage social workers to consider adoption more often in cases where children already in foster care cannot go home.

This would come after the usual efforts to help birth parents address the issues that led to their child’s removal and only if they could not do so (in a time frame still to be finalised) would adoption be considered.

A child’s connection with their birth parents is extremely important and there will always be hope that they can change. (Perhaps knowing adoption is on the table would further motivate some.) But current trends show children are remaining in state care for longer and the rate of return to biological parents is not rising.

In rare cases where parents may die, go to prison for a long time or have a permanent impairment, or a child is removed at birth and never forms a strong bond, a decision could be made relatively early that they would be a good candidate for the permanency of adoption. But adoption from state care is currently extremely rare. It hasn’t happened in the past five years.

Many people don’t want the finality it represents. Aboriginal leaders have made it clear that encouraging the severing of legal ties to birth parents would actually pose more of a threat than an opportunity, in light of the past forced removals of the Stolen Generations.

For this reason, Ms Sanderson has ruled out applying the policy to Aboriginal children.

Instead, many foster families seeking more permanency progress to what is known as long-term guardianship.

This arrangement gives foster parents more control over making decisions about a child while still providing taxpayer-funded financial support.

It doesn’t sever legal ties and only covers a child until they turn 18.

While it has been possible since 1993, guardianship has also been rare, until a concerted effort to identify eligible foster families where a child had lived for at least two years prompted an increase — to 45 cases in 2017-18.

In her 2016 report, Royal Commissioner Margaret Nyland urged the Child Protection Department to further encourage guardianship, in favour of adoption.

In contrast, State Coroner Mark Johns has stressed adoption “must” be an option for children in care, warning there had been too much emphasis in the past on preserving family units where children were not safe, and never would be.

For a growing number of families, the level of certainty guardianship provides is enough without progressing to the final stage of adoption.

Others, though, would dearly love to adopt to legally become a family and avoid what they may feel is interference by the department.

(Though Ms Sanderson is considering whether to continue providing payments to help manage the continuing effects of trauma, abuse or disability experienced by many kids in care.)

At the end of the day, a policy change won’t lead to hundreds of children suddenly being adopted, or relieve massive pressure on the system. In fact, Ms Sanderson has estimated it could be just a handful to start. While it would make a huge difference to those few lives, it won’t do anything to stem the flow of new children entering the system.

Last financial year, 749 kids were put on state care orders for the first time. The problems driving them there — neglect, abuse, addiction, poor parenting skills and poverty — persist, and require more resources and effort to tackle.

Adoption should have a place in the system — and a more prominent one than it does now — but the chief focus must remain on keeping children safe in the homes where they start out.