Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson moves to allow more adoptions in South Australia
Adoption from state care — which is legal but rare in SA — is likely to become an option for far more children, as the Child Protection Minister begins a significant policy overhaul.
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Adoption is expected to become more common in South Australia as Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson pledges to make it a “genuine option” for children in state care.
Ms Sanderson will update departmental policy to ensure social workers consider permanent adoption when it is “in the best interests of the child”.
She will begin consulting with key groups later this month.
This will include engaging with welfare organisations, experts and adoptees on how her department can “expand the use of adoption from (state) care” later this month.
However, Aboriginal children will not be covered. It is understood this decision followed consultation between the Government and select Aboriginal community leaders.
Adoption of children from state care is already legal but extremely rare. It has not occurred for at least five years.
Ms Sanderson said the new policy would make clear that it should be a “genuine option”.
“For many children who come into care, there is no option for them to be safely reunified with family and these children deserve a right to a forever family,” she said.
It is not known how many children might be eligible but experts told the Nyland royal commission that about 200 non-Aboriginal children might be able to leave state care if adoption were supported in SA at similar rates to overseas.
Under the updated policy, all adoptions would be open, allowing children to know the identity of their birth parents and have contact with them.
Children over 12 must consent to an adoption.
Ms Sanderson said she would consult on when it should be considered, for which children and whether financial support should still be provided to carers who adopted.
Peak body SNAICC, which represents Aboriginal children, has previously told a federal inquiry that “regardless of the intentions” around adoption, “the permanent removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) children from their families presents harrowing echoes of the Stolen Generations”.
Its 2018 submission said there should be a “moratorium” on adoption of ATSI children “in the short term” and stressed the importance of “permanence of their identity in connection with family, kin, culture and country”.
Child protection workers will continue to try to place Aboriginal children with Aboriginal relatives or foster carers. Coroner Mark Johns said in a 2015 report that adoption “must have a place in the child protection system” while the 2016 Nyland royal commission urged greater use of guardianship instead, which does not sever ties completely.
The 2017-18 Adoptions Australia report shows there were six adoptions of foreign children to SA but none by carers or step-parents known to SA children.
In contrast, there were 186 in NSW where authorities must consider adoption within a year if there is “no realistic possibility” of a child returning to their birth parents.
Adelaide mother-of-two Emmah Money was adopted as a baby after spending a couple of months in foster care.
Now 31, she views adoption as “being the chosen one” and supported giving that opportunity to more children in care.
“Adoption is not for everyone, but … having the option to be adopted could be a really positive thing for so many kids,” she said.