Transracial adoption: New Rules

Despite resistance from Black care groups and sustained campaigns against trans-racial adoption new government guidance will advise social workers that they should allow white couples to adopt black and ethnic minority children.

The guidelines to be unveiled by Education Secretary Michael Gove this week will make clear to adoption and care agencies that if prospective adopters show that they are able to parent a child race should not be a barrier to the process.

Reports say that Ministers feel that social workers have until now been over-zealous in seeking to place children with adoptive parents of the same racial background, with the result that ethnic minority children wait on average three times longer than white children to find a permanent home.

But when the proposed new guidelines were leaked last year, Black sector practitioners told OBV that; “BME applicants trying to adopt children in care are being shunned by local authorities in favour of white adopters because assessors feel more able to engage with white families”.

However, the new advice will give clear guidelines that where a family can meet a child's emotional and development, ethnic origin should not impede the process.

Although current advice states that social workers must give "due consideration to the child's religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background", apparently it does not make state clear how race should be considered.

The new guidance will say that social workers should not delay adoption in the hope of finding an ethnic match for children. And ministers say that with most prospective parents being white, race should not delay adoption.

Winsome-Grace Cornish

Main picture: Hollywood star Sandra Bullock and adopted daughter.