ChildLinks Issue 1: Adoption & Fostering

It is timely that this issue of ChildLinks deals with the topic of Adoption and Fostering since both have received media attention in recent weeks. The Adoption Bill 2009 is expected to be passed into law in May 2010. Barnardos has welcomed this Bill as important in ensuring the highest standards of care and protection for children being adopted by families in Ireland. One area where the Bill is disappointing is the failure to include a right of adopted children to information about their birth and origins. There are over 5,000 children currently being cared for by foster parents in Ireland. Foster care is the preferred option for most children in State care. In recent weeks it has emerged that approximately 800 children in care have been placed in foster families that have not been fully assessed by the HSE. Many children (815) and many foster parents (864) had not been allocated a social worker. Given the Ryan Report and all of the talk about ‘never again’, the idea that hundreds of vulnerable children are fostered to unapproved families is mind boggling. It is essential that in all aspects of both adoption and fostering, the best interests of the child must be the paramount consideration.

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2010