Ideas@TheCentre
Adoption: Proof think tanks CAN DO
The Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry has endorsed adoption ‘as one response’ to the urgent need to provide stable and permanent homes for the thousands of Australian children currently languishing in out-of-home care.
It was gratifying to find that my work, advocating greater use of adoption of children from care, was cited by the commission’s ‘options for reform’ paper (see p. 29).
Something of a sea change in attitudes to adoption appears to be occurring.
The Queensland endorsement follows a similar recommendation in the Cummins report into child protection in Victoria, which called for barriers to adoption to be identified and eliminated. The NSW Minister for Community Services, Pru Goward, also went on the record in support of adoption in an address to the Sydney Institute in October last year.
Yet there is still a long way to go to lift the official ‘taboo’ on adoption.
In 2010–11, fewer than 200 children were adopted in Australia. This was despite more than 37,000 children having been in government-funded care placements. More than 25,000 of these children had been in care placements continuously for more than two years.
Most of these children are likely to have been damaged by the ‘family preservation’ approach to child protection favoured by state and territory community services departments. As I have argued in a series of papers published by the CIS on child protection, ‘statutory intervention’ (court-approved removal and provision of alternative accommodation) often occurs too late and only after a child has been damaged by prolonged exposure to neglect and abuse by demonstrably unfit parents.
Children are further damaged by unstable living arrangements when foster placements break down due to children’s abuse-related personal and behavioural problems. They are also damaged when repeatedly taken into and out of care after attempted family reunions inevitably break down due to the recurrence of parental problems and child maltreatment.
Despite these systemic problems being well known, support for adoption remains weak compared to the institutionalised support for family preservation within child protection services. Strong political leadership by responsible ministers is therefore required to drive cultural change within these services and ensure family preservation is superseded by the principle of early removal and adoption.
We know, however, that most politicians prefer to ‘lead’ only when they believe that the electorate supports them heading in a particular direction. Hence, the recommendations of the Queensland report are very important, as this is helping to shape public opinion in favour of adoption.
This also demonstrates the importance and potential value of the work of a genuinely independent think tank like the CIS. By doing quality, in-depth research on key policy issues, it is possible to shape community attitudes, influence policymakers, and thereby achieve better policy outcomes.
Dr Jeremy Sammut is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
