LETTERS A child's second chance
Sir: Charles Moore is quite right to take a dim view of the Department of Health's recently published discussion paper on intercountry adoption (Another voice, 18 January).
Of course the protection of genuinely abandoned children is fundamental but the document seems curiously out of step with the Government's rightly placed confidence in the thinking public, as enshrined in its Citizen's Charter. The Minister for Health, Mrs Virginia Bottomley, has made it quite plain that the adoption services offered by the local authorities are second to none and that they must remain within their jurisdic- tion. She has also frequently voiced her concern about the treatment of prospective adoptive parents and the handling of their applications by local authorities. To hold both these views is untenable.
If the United Kingdom genuinely wants to provide a second chance for some of these children, the role of intercountry adoption should be more widely extended to specialist agencies, including the govern- ment-approved church adoption societies and some of the excellent independent social work groups, who are not con- strained by the many demanding duties of an average social services department. The Government can always insist that these groups are officially accredited to carry out these responsibilities.
As long as these non-statutory services belong exclusively to local authorities, poli- cy is likely to fluctuate according to a local department's ideological views, the govern- ment in power and the Treasury purse. The issue should be above party politics and the initiative should come from the whole com- munity, whose commitment towards these ehildren is unwavering.
One in eight couples experience the debilitating and demoralising effects of their own infertility, although only a very tiny percentage will go on to adopt a child from abroad. That still leaves a large sector of the voting population who may, at one time or another, approach the social ser- vices for advice about adoption.
If the Government is truly committed to translating the intentions of its Citizen's Charter into real action for the public it serves, and some public servants are not committed to this intention, Mrs Bottomley should allocate these duties to those who are willing and able. No one doubts that a real reduction in NHS waiting lists will raise public confidence, but what about those who are waiting and waiting to adopt a child for whom the alternative is 'the vir- tual certainty of no parents at all'?
Elizabeth Noel
9 Courtnell Street, London W2
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