Opinion by: The National Adoption
Coalition
The Department
of Social Development’s recent media statement that it wants its
social workers to provide adoption services in a bid to “curb the high cost of
adoptions and make it easier for ordinary families to adopt children” is deeply
concerning at its core. Not because of
its intention to train and skill government social workers in the specialised
adoption practice – this is to be lauded as indeed there is a shortage - but
because the spirit in which such an announcement was made is deeply harmful and
dishonest in its treatment of child protection organisations and social workers
in private practice.
DSDS’s statement that 'Adoption Agencies charge no less than
R100,000 to manage the adoption process
of a single child", is both irresponsible and inaccurate. Not only is it untrue, but it paints Child
Protection Organisations who do exceptionally important work in an unfairly
poor light. More fundamentally, it can
only discourage people from considering adoptions, possibly waiting for the DSD
to provide “free and cheap” adoptions, while millions of orphans remain in
orphanages and far from the ideal circumstances of a loving parental home and
family.
The primary losers in this political fracas
are the millions (not thousands!) of adoptable children who will be left without
any hope of a loving home due to bureaucratic red tape and political
posturing. Evidence
of this is already clear in the unintended consequences of the Children’s Act
implemented in 2005, which has seen a 30% drop
in adoptions in a country with about 5.4 million orphans since its
implementation. Currently less than 1600
adoptions are taking place annually. When you do the sums, it becomes
frightening, if not insurmountable in the current status-quo.
Some incredibly important realities need to be put on
the table, and the Department of Social Development would do well to
acknowledge the important work done by all the role players and the importance
of collaboration in working towards our single most important purpose – child
protection and loving families for our orphans.
Here are
the facts:
·
The Children's Act 38/2005 actually makes provision for the payment of
fees in respect of an adoption to a Child Protection Organization. These fees are regulated in terms of Regulation
107 of the Children's Act.
·
The fees are not however legislated for in respect of accredited
adoption social workers in private practice.
The National Adoption Coalition, a mandated body of adoption service
providers, has been consistently lobbying the Department of Social Development
to give attention to the regulation of the fees in respect of adoption social
workers in private practice to bring it in line with those of Child Protection
Organizations.
·
More importantly, given the fact that adoption fees
are regulated by the Department of Social Development, it would be difficult for
a Child Protection Organization to charge R100k for a single adoption. All
adoption reports are canalized through the Department of Social Development
before an adoption can be finalized in court. The fees paid in respect of an adoption need
to be declared in a formal report and if the Department have picked up that
some agencies are charging R100k, why have they not investigated such outrageous
fees being charged by organisations? If unusually high fees
are charged by certain organisations, then such specific cases should be dealt
with by DSD swiftly.
·
To indicate that organizations can charge
this amount for an adoption really discredits all the good work being done by
so many Child Protection Organizations who also specialize in processing
adoptions. This should not be about an “us and them” situation, and working
together as a collaborative is critical to resolve the many onerous challenges
we face as a cohesive voice.
·
Most Child Protection Organizations work on a sliding scale and accept
applicants from all walks of life, including people from rural areas, domestic
workers and cleaners. In fact the fee
paid in these instances is minimal and does not preclude anyone who has a
genuine desire to adopt a child, and who is found to wholly competent.
·
There are entirely valid and important reasons for some fees to be
charged – and these are steeped in the reality of the situation. Fees vary between adoption social workers and CPO’s, ranging between R5000
to R20 000 for a national adoption. These fees are dependent on how much is
subsidised by the DSD and the amount of work required to finalise an adoption
in SA – an intensive process that requires skilled and experienced people. The fees are derived from the costs of
detailed assessments, pre-adoption workshops and preparation, counselling,
administrative fees (often involving months of work), court preparation, legal
documentation and court reports, ongoing consultation with DSD at both a
provincial and national level, medical fees, and so on. All the while, these children are taken care
of, clothed, fed, kept healthy and homed by dedicated caregivers – none of
which is without cost and none of which are included in the adoption fees.
DSDs statement that adoptions will be ‘cheaper and
easier’ when government social workers are also able to process adoptions is
entirely misleading. What Government
should rather have been putting out there, is that once Government social
workers are able to process adoptions, it will open up a new option for
prospective adopters wishing to adopt, but that it works hand in hand with all
the other role players in the adoption community, who also provide an excellent
service to help people with the adoption process.
The National Adoption Coalition is constantly
trying to recruit adoptive parents in what is a national crisis. Putting out a false message that it costs
R100,000 to adopt is wholly counter-productive and irresponsible, as it discourages
anyone from coming forward to adopt. Adopting a child is a life changing and
lifelong decision with enormous responsibilities – at all times child
protection and putting the interests of children first are paramount before all
other considerations. It seems inconceivable that the Department responsible
for accrediting adoption service providers would want to discredit a community
of organisations who do incredibly important work, who assist Government with
training and skills transfer for their own social workers, and we can hopefully
out these statement down to poorly conceived notions and statement by an
individual who has possible not considered the long term unintended
consequences of such statements.
Adoption is a specialised service, which means that people who provide
these services must be accredited to ensure that the best interests of the
child are protected. Many parents who
have worked through a social worker who was not specialised have found that the
adoption requirements were not properly met.
If government social workers are trained in this field, it would assist
with the shortage of specialised adoption social workers, but it could not be
done successfully without the support and skills transfer from specialists in
private practice and dedicated child protection organisations.
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