Coram backs Martin Narey's adoption report
15th July 2011
UK children’s charity Coram has welcomed an extensive report on adoption (The Times, 5 July) written by Martin Narey, newly appointed Ministerial Advisor on Adoption and former chief executive of Barnados.
In a joint statement, Dr Carol Homden, Coram Chief Executive, and Jeanne Kaniuk OBE, Coram's Head of Adoption and Permanent Planning, said:
“Martin Narey’s extensive and considered report on adoption in The Times (12th July) thoroughly reviews the range of issues impacting on our most vulnerable children – those who, because of the harm and risk they face cannot safely remain in their families. He points out that ensuring the child’s welfare is and should be our paramount consideration.
“It is our collective duty to ensure that the majority of children who can be supported in their families are enabled to remain but for the small minority for whom this is not possible, adoption is considered at the earliest possible stage alongside other permanent forms of care. It is essential that children do not drift in the care system which is supposed to protect them.”
The report, subtitled ‘our blueprint for Britain’s lost children’, recommends that action is taken to minimise delays where the best interests of the child are clear and adoption offers the best prospects of permanency. Recommendations include looking at how pre-court processes might be shortened, that unnecessary assessments are not undertaken and that adoption is given greater prominence in social working training.
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