Why Children Need Adoptive Parents
Aberdeen Council provides a range of services and resources whose aim is to support parents to look after their children in the family home. While our goal is to help families stay together, there are times when children and young people cannot live in their own home. Illness, unemployment and changing family circumstances can all lead to tension and stress. Sometimes parents feel unable to cope, sometimes children are neglected or abused.
Sometimes, despite intensive efforts, a child or young person can not continue to live with their birth family. Wherever possible, a child will want to live with their own parents or relatives such as grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. but sometimes this is just not possible. “Freeing” the child to allow them to become adopted involves a series of legal processes that releases the child from local authority care and allows them to become a full, permanent member of another family. In many cases the birth parents may be actively opposed to adoption which may mean that the process will be long and complicated. During this time a child may have contact with their birth parents. Sometimes this will be under the direct supervision of a social work member of staff.
Children from a wide range of backgrounds require adoptive placements. In the past people may have thought that adopting a child would mean adopting a baby who had been placed by a young mother voluntarily because she could not cope with bringing the child up herself. Today parents considering placing their child for adoption are likely to receive intensive support to assist them to cope with their child. The number of babies available to be adopted is therefore small.
Children placed for adoption these days tend to be older and may have complicated needs as a result of the lifestyle and health histories of their birth parents. Mental health issues and an inability to cope through regularly abusing alcohol or drugs are amongst the reasons a child may be placed for adoption. Children are all very different and some with special needs may well require the ongoing support from social work, education and health services.
Adoptive families are required for children at lots of different ages and stages in their development. Some older children of primary school age also require adoptive families. These children are likely to have complex needs as they are more likely to have been exposed for a longer period to emotionally damaging experiences. Older children may also have brothers or sisters who also require adoptive parents. When possible these children should be placed together as a family. When this is not best for them then we will look for families who will help to maintain and promote their contact with brothers and sisters who may be placed in different permanent homes.
Back to the Adopting in Aberdeen home page.
