Lest anyone think it’s merely Bastards and Parents criticizing the number of kids being processed via the adoption industry and the less than stellar track record in terms of long term outcomes, I wanted to highlight a bit of criticism from adopters themselves, (if in a non-American context.)

Adoption UK, a group run by and for adopters has released a new report out today concerning the state of adoption in Wales.

I strongly oppose a number of the recommendations in the report relating to the the attempt to slide attachment quackery (also be sure to see A search for survivors)  into basic qualifications as I view the attachment industry and personalities inherent to it as nothing less than human rights violations, an ongoing hazard to Bastards’ life and health. Many of these so called “therapists” are simply criminals and child torturers with nothing short of an adoptee body count to show for their vile “work.”

But I did want to highlight two aspects of the report that Americans may not otherwise hear about, the massive failure rate (often marked by returning the child to public care) of the adoptions in the study and the basic lack of services, particularly mental health services to adoptees themselves (as well as their adopters.)

By Adoption UK’s tabulations, at least 1 in 5 adoptions eventually “breakdown,” though the actual numbers may be much higher:

Wales manager Ann Bell, who is both an adoptee and an adoptive parent, said the number of adoptive family break-ups could be as high as one-in-three but statistics kept by Wales’ 22 councils were not collated by the assembly government.

She said: “We feel that the assembly government needs to be pulling that data together and really learning from that data.

Let that really sink in, this is a report and comment to the BBC by adopters themselves, stating plainly that perhaps as many as one third of these adoptions will come to a quiet end within a matter of years.

These less than stellar “adoption outcomes” are being swept under the rug as no one is even tasked with tracking them.

In the U.K. just as the U.S., we are left with a fundamental lack of data collection and tabulation (emphasis mine):

The charity Adoption UK said care professionals were not learning from the “unacceptable” level of breakdowns because no overall record was kept.

Once the fuss and hubbub of “gotcha day” has passed, there is little to no tracking on what happens years down the line.

All of which is set against the backdrop of of an increasing number of adoptions in Wales:

Adoption UK said its report comes as the number of adoptions in Wales rose from 212 in 2008 to 256 in 2009.

As no one is formally tasked with tracking the failure rate, let alone what happens to the kids after an adoption “breakdown,” the popular perception remains that of the nonstop drumbeat for ever more adoptions, families traveling abroad to collect their purchases, all teddy bears and smiles, with any failures quietly sliding out the back door un-noted and unnoticed.

This article, Adoption services failing vulnerable children, approaches the same report from a perspective more rooted in the needs of the kids themselves:

Services for adopted children are not supporting them properly, according to a report out today.

it continues:

The study found that some local authorities are failing to respond to the needs of adopted children, and that schools’ attitudes can be dismissive.

Essential services are also limited – in one case a family was told to wait five years before requesting help from Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

The full Adoption UK report can be found here, Support Needs of Adoptive Families in Wales.

Just bear in mind as you read it, attachment quackery junk “therapies” are front and center in the core recommendations, such “therapies” represent nothing less than violations of adoptee’s human rights and should be opposed by all who genuinely care about the well being, human rights, and political realities of adopted people.