1 ADOPTION POLICY FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 26- OCTOBER 2010.

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ADOPTION POLICY FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY

PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

26- OCTOBER 2010

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OVERVIEW OF THE PRESENTATION

• Purpose

• Process of developing the strategy

• Problem statement

• Methodology

• Policy context

• Current adoption practice

• Situational Analysis• Patterns of adoption

• Characteristics of children adopted

• Types of alternative care and characteristics

• New opportunities

• Strategic perspective

• Vision

• Objectives and strategic actions

• Barriers to adoptions

• Monitoring and evaluation

• Policy Recommendations

• Costing

• Recommendations

• Action Plan

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Contents of the Policy Framework and Strategy for Adoption

• Foreword By Minister

• Acknowledgements

• Executive Summary

• Chapter 1: Background history of adoptions in South Africa

• Chapter 2: Policy context

• Chapter 3: Situational Analysis

• Chapter 4: Strategic Perspective

• Chapter 5: Barriers to adoptions

• Chapter 6: Monitoring and evaluation

• Chapter 7: Policy Recommendations

• Chapter 8: Costing

• Chapter 9: Conclusions and Recommendations

• Chapter 10: Action Plan

• Annexures

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Purpose

• To provide feedback on the progress made in relation to the development of the adoption policy framework and strategy

• To request approval of the adoption policy framework and strategy

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PROBLEM STATEMENT

• Adoption as a placement option has been widely under-utilised in SA, due to the following :

- Most children are being placed in foster care which is a temporary placement rather than being permanently placed in adoption.

- There are barriers preventing people from adopting children such as socio – cultural obstacles, service provider obstacles children

- There is lack of financial support towards the adoptive families & adopted children, especially those with special needs

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METHODOLODY

• The policy framework and strategy consists of the document and literature review which is aimed at understanding the various frameworks, mechanisms and contexts that could facilitate/ inhibit the uptake of adoption in SA, as well as the strategies that could be implemented to increase the number of prospective adoptive parents and children.

• Analysis of secondary data from the national Adoptions Register was

further reviewed to establish the levels and trends of adoption, as well as to compile a brief socio-demographic profile of adoptive parents and adopted children

• The policy framework and strategy incorporates the findings and recommendations of the research undertaken by the Human Science Research Council.

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Policy contextLegislation

• Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996)• The Children’s Act 38 0f 2005

• White Paper for Social Welfare, 1997

• National Policy Framework and Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Management of Child Abuse, Neglect & Exploitation

Global and Regional commitments

• United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989

• African Common Position on Children: Africa Fit for Children, 2001

• The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of inter-country Adoption, 1993

• The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 1990

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SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS • The estimated number of children under the age of 18 years is 18.8 million in 2007, younger children in the 0-4 years age group comprises almost (28%) of the child population

(The Presidency, 2009). • The estimated number of adoptable children can be gleaned from recent statistics of children in foster care as well as those deprived of parental care, including orphans, children

living in child-headed households and children in residential care as shown in below: • Street children are also another category of children often deprived of parental care. However, due to their unpredictable lifestyle, it is often difficult to collect reliable data on

them, and to determine their precise number (Mufune, 2000; Volpi, 2003). As a result, the research on these children in recent years, estimates from the 1990s, and indicated that there were between 9,000 and 10,000 street children in SA.

• Although the statistics shows the number of children that are in need of parental care and might be available for adoption, the data is not sufficient to accurately estimate the number of adoptable children in South Africa.

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Estimated number of adoptable children

Estimated number of orphaned children in 2007

668 000

Estimated number of children living in child-headed households in 2007

150 000

Estimated number of children in state owned children’s homes as end of October 2009

14 599

Number of children in Foster care March 2010 510 766 foster children receiving foster child grants

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Number of children adopted

National Inter-country Total

March 2005 2 601 239 2840

March 2006 2 520 248 2768

March 2007 2560 256 2816

March 2008 2058 231 2289

March 2009 1150 218 1368

January 2010 2244 234 2478

Total 13133 1426 14559

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Patterns of adoptionNational adoptions by cross-cultural information• National Adoption Register shows that the majority of national adoptions

in the recent years took place within the same culture/ same racial group • With intercountry adoption, this pattern may be a reflection of the

Department’s policy that prioritises adoption of children within their own communities/country of origin.

• There are no legal barriers to trans-racial / cross-cultural adoptions in SA in terms of the Child Care Act.

National adoptions by family type• Data from the Adoption Register shows that in recent years the most

popular type of adoption was step adoption; followed by foster adoption that had a particular peak in 2007; family adoption has remained steady, while biological adoption has been the least popular.

National adoptions • In terms of the characteristics of adoptive parents, it is noted that single

adoptive parents were the highest as compared to married couples to adopt children from 2004 till 2007. However the trend seemed to have been reversed from 2008 till 2009

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National adoptions by cross-cultural information

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

1 April 2004-31March 2005





Year

To

tal N

o. o

f C

ou

rt A

do

pti

on

Ord

ers

Crosscultural Same Culture

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Characteristics of children adopted Previous research has revealed that the uptake of adoption can be influenced by several individual

characteristics of prospective adoptees, including demographic variables such as age, race and gender .

Age • It has generally been found that the likelihood of being adopted decreases with age, with possible explanations

for this being case workers’ concerns over the safety of young people, and older children being less attractive to potential adoptive families due to their well-documented increased risk of placement disruption after adoption.

• Additionally, the cost of adoption becomes a major concern when families consider adoption of older children, because adolescents generally have expensive desires and needs

• This is evident in South Africa where the study revealed that the overwhelming majority of prospective adoptive parents prefer babies.

Gender • With regard to gender, a number of studies from Western countries have noted a strong preference towards

adopting girls. Several theories attempt to explain this notion, that girls may be easier to raise because they are less aggressive and more submissive

• In the case of intercountry adoptions, girls may be able to assimilate into the receiving society more easily than their male counterparts

• Study reveals that South Africans do not seem to have a clear gender preference with regard to adoptable children .The overall experience in South Africa is that gender is not usually the deciding factor; as long as the baby is healthy the adoptive parents are often satisfied.

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Characteristics of children adopted cont

Race

• In SA, African, Indian and Coloured children are less likely to be adopted than White children, even though, the large majority of children who are orphaned, abandoned, and in alternative care are Africans.

• A relatively low levels of adoption among Indians may reflect the fact that, with the very close circle of family bonding and boundaries, Indians would find adoption very challenging because, by its nature, it introduces someone from outside the family.

• White South Africans may be more comfortable adopting trans-racially. • The racial pattern is reversed when data for inter-country adoptions are

analysed, majority of African children made up the bulk of inter-country adoptions in the recent years, with Coloured, White and Indian children following in that order.

• Inter-country adopters will almost have a limited choice in terms of the race of their prospective adoptive child.

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• Biological adoption: Adoption of a child by his biological father who was not married to the child’s mother when the child was born;

• Family adoption: Adoption of a child by relatives, e.g. uncle, aunt, grand-parent etc;

• Foster adoption: Adoption of a child by a foster parent, a person who legally fostered the child; and

• Step adoption: Adoption of a step child by a step-parent

National adoptions by family type

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National adoptions by Family Type

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000






Year

To

tal N

o. o

f C

ou

rt A

do

pti

on

Ord

ers

Biological Family Foster Step

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Legitimacy

• Abandoned (children who are given up by their parents and whose parents cannot be traced, e.g. children who are left at hospitals and streets by their parent);

• Children born out of wedlock, born of unmarried parents, and

• Children born within marriage. It also covers children whose parents have separated or divorced, as long the child was born within marriage

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National Adoptions by legitimacy

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1 April 2004-31

March 2005

1 April 2005-31

March 2006

1 April 2006-31

March 2007

1 April 2007-31

March 2008

1 April 2008-31

March 2009

Year

Ad

op

tio

ns

Abandoned out of wedlockL wedlock

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Patterns of adoptionUsing the available information in the National Adoptions Register, this section shows the various patterns of adoption in South Africa.

Inter-country adoptions • Inter-country adoptions have almost doubled in the last 10 years,

driven by changes in fertility and other demand and supply factors • Many African countries have shown little interest in inter-country

adoptions and the Hague Convention in particular, because of the burden of supervision, administrative control and the wide range of services that countries of origin need to provide to ensure successful placement

• SA is one of the few African countries that have acceded to the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption in (acceeded 1December 2003)

• National adoptions are prioritised over inter -country adoptions. • The Adoption Register shows a steady but very small increase in inter-

country adoptions and the overwhelmingly large proportion of national adoptions.

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Racial breakdown of inter-country adoptions

Year White African Indian Coloured Total

1 April 2004 – 31 March 2005

7 208 2 22 239

1 April 2005 – 31 March 2006

1 233 0 14 248

1 April 2006 – 31 March 2007

0 250 0 6 256

1 April 2007 – 31 March 2008

1 220 0 10 231

1 April 2008 – 31 March 2009

5 192 0 21 218

Totals: 14 1 103 2 73 1 192

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Inter country adoptions by receipt countries

301

249

226

190

137

71

57

46

45

44

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7

5

5

1

1

1

1

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Germany

Sw eden

Netherlands

Denmark

Finland

Belgium

Norw ay

Austria

Canada

Luxemburg

USA

Botsw ana

United Kingdom

Zimbabw e

Australia

Ireland

Namibia

Nigeria

Co

un

try

Number of Children Adopted from South Africa

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WHO ADOPTS

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200






Year

Tota

l No.

of C

ourt

Ord

ered

A

dopt

ions

Married Single

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Racial breakdown of national adoptions Year White African Indian Coloured Total1 April 2004 – 31 March 2005

1 118 989 51 443 2 601

1 April 2005 – 31 March 2006

1 106 898 90 426 2 520

1 April 2006 – 31 March 2007

1 003 1 023 50 484 2 560

1 April 2007 – 31 March 2008

934 772 63 286 2 058

1 April 2008—31 March 2009

602 432 48 68 1 150

Totals 4 763 4 117 302 1 707 10 889

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Types of alternative care and characteristics

Type Characteristics

Foster care Short term placementChildren are not permanentAging out at 18 years

Adoptions Permanent placement Child belongs to family

Residential care Short term placement children not permanent Leave RC at 18

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BARRIERS TO ADOPTION

Types of barriers identified

Service provider obstacles

- Legal and judicial systems

- Resource allocation obstacle

- Knowledge-based obstacles

- Socio-cultural obstacles

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Strategic perspective

• Vision

The provision of a stable and permanent home for children requiring alternative care

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New opportunities brought

As is New

Rigid Legal position Flexibility in legal processes for adoption

More children in foster care Permanency planning for children who are adoptable

Adoption practice privatized Government involved in rendering of adoption services

Adoption agencies not accredited by SACSSP

Adoption agencies accredited by DSD

Lack of prospective adoptive parents and adoptable children

RACAP promotes and facilitates placement of children

Ad hoc promotion of adoption services Coordinated promotion of adoption services

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STRATEGY AND STRATEGIC ACTIONS

The over-all objective of an adoption strategy for South Africa is to promote adoption as the preferred form of permanent placement of children.

This could be achieved by – (a) taking the opportunities presented by the new legal framework to

popularize adoption.(b) minimising impediments to adoption through providing adequate

technical and human resources to support adoption services and to enable effective service delivery in adoption;

(c) improving resource allocation(d) improving the knowledgebase of communities and service providers

on adoption(e) improving the understanding socio-cultural beliefs and practises of

adoption

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STRATEGY AND STRATEGIC ACTIONS

Objective 1:

Taking the opportunities presented by the new legal framework to popularize, adoption services

• Register on Adoptable Children and Prospective Adoptive Parents (RACAP)

• Post-adoption agreements

• Promoting Open Adoptions

• Freeing orders

• Family reunification and permanency planning

• Termination of parental responsibilities and rights

• Defining adoptable children

• Identification of adoptable children in alternative care

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STRATEGY AND STRATEGIC ACTIONS (cont’d)

Objective2: Minimising impediments to adoption through providing adequate

technical and human resources to support adoption services and to enable effective service delivery in adoption

• This includes both intra-organisational, inter-system and personal obstacles in direct service provider organisations such as child welfare and the legal system.

• Providing adequate technical and human resources to support adoption services and to enable effective service delivery in adoption.

• Building capacity of adoption service providers and stakeholders to improve adoption systems and processes as there is lack of consistency and uniformity in the interpretation and implementation of key child care legislation by different stakeholders in particular adoption service providers and magistrates

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Objective 3: Improving resource allocation• This relates to the common and chronic lack of specialised services to

address the special needs of adopted children and their families,

• Insufficient resources in many communities to finance their programme development, or to sustain them over time.

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Objective 4:

Improving the knowledge base of communities and service providers on adoption services:

• Widespread lack of knowledge and understanding regarding the unique dynamics of adoption, the typical issues confronting adopted children and their families, the risk factors that undermine adoption, and the factors that stabilise, strengthen, and preserve adoptive families.

• Raising awareness, promotion and marketing of adoption as the preferred option: This includes appropriate outreach, marketing, public relations and community programmes to make information on adoption readily available.

• Shortage of prospective adoptive parents, especially from the African community

• Adoption as a form of permanent alternative care has not received widespread promotion.

• Recruitment of prospective adoptive parents is currently carried out in an ad hoc manner and its reach is limited by lack of financial support.

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Objective 5:

Improving the understanding socio- cultural beliefs and practices of adoption:

• This focuses on traditional belief systems and cultural understandings

of the permanency of various care practices.

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POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Adoption Grant:

• It is noted from the research that people are in favour of an adoption grant in that this would enable more people to adopt and would help in alleviating the pressure that the foster care system is placing on the system.

• An adoption grant is more necessary in that previously prospective parents were screened on the basis of income to ensure that they had sufficient means to care for the child. Such screening is no longer allowed under the new Act.

• A government needs to have some way of ensuring that the needs of the child are met, and a grant would go some way towards doing this. A grant could also help in correcting the current skew in the race profile of prospective and actual adoptive parents (and children) in that it is black prospective parents who are more likely to be poor.

• The total cost of an adoption grant would be relatively small when compared to the costs of the child support and foster care grants given the much smaller numbers of children that would be covered even if an adoption strategy succeeds in increasing the adoption rate.

• Further, unless all the monitoring, renewal and after-care services that accompany foster care are made applicable for adopted children, the non-grant costs of the adoption grant would be less than that of the foster care grant. Thus, to the extent that currently fostered children are adopted, government will save money with an adoption grant.

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POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS (CONT)• An adoption grant could be introduced without any serious concerns about affordability.

This conclusion is reached on the assumption that the number of new adoptions would increase at a rate of 10% per year as a result both of the publicity and new efforts of the introduction of a “new” adoption strategy and the incentive of the adoption grant.

• The adoption grant can be utilised for children who are in long term foster care.

• The benefits for these children include a permanent family and improved legal status.

• Additionally there could be capacity and resource efficiencies as the state would not be required to review the placements as it is currently the practice in foster care.

• This action would impact on the present number of children in foster care. Foster care can continue to be utilised as an interim arrangement as was originally envisioned. A policy and strategy can be developed to manage the transition from foster care to adoption.

• It is therefore, strongly recommended that adoption is promoted for children who are identified as adoptable who are in long term care. Consideration must be given to the utilisation of foster care as an interim placement.

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POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS (cont’d)

Cultural sensitive adoption • It is evident from the African cultural perspective, that consideration should be given to

‘Africanising’ the concept of adoption to be more culturally appropriate and relevant.

• Efforts need to be made to promote adoption based on the cultural beliefs of people.

• If through this process, the concept of adoption is developed into something which resonates more closely with cultural belief systems, it is likely the adoptive prospects of the most vulnerable group of children (those with no extended family who are placed indefinitely in institutional care) may improve.

• If through this process, the concept of adoption is developed into something which resonates more closely with cultural belief systems, it is likely the adoptive prospects of the most vulnerable group of children (those with no extended family who are placed indefinitely in institutional care) may improve.

• The beliefs expressed in the research suggest that outside of family networks it is strongly believed that children should be raised within their own country and their culture, even if they are not able to be raised by their kin. This perspective was most evident in the clear preference for national over inter country adoption.

• Consultation with traditional leaders to guide the development of a system where by African rituals and practices are incorporated; where culturally sensitive approaches to naming and renaming children; and cultural perspectives on how children come to belong are included would be strongly recommended to increase the adoptability of children within their own cultural systems.

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Financial costs Register on adoptable children and prospective adoptive parents

(RACAP)• The estimated total cost to complete the development of the RACAP is

R729, 600.00; the amount will cover the following:• 2 x Web Application Development service R350.00 for 4 months

R448,000.00

• Integration Specialist service @ R600.00 on consultation per day for 1 month = R192,000.00

• Total excluding vat = R640,000.00• VAT = R89,600.00• TOTAL INCLUDING VAT = R729,600.00

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Financial Costs (cont)

Communication strategy Yr1 Yr2 YR3

• 5 x Community dialogues R250, R350 , R400,• Publication Material (posters, videos, pamphlets) R500, R550 R600• National launch Media Campaign R2m R2,5m R3,5m • Capacity Building R400, R420, R450,• Training manuals R350, R200, R200• Total R4M R4,92m R5,15m

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Costing (cont)

3. Provinces Resources• 4 Social work posts (level 9) R10, 728. 360• Computers, Stationary and telephones R360, 000, 00 • Telephones R86, 400, 00• Availability of office space (confidential) R15,172.360 (R168, 582 per province)

• Yr 1 GRAND TOTAL R37, 112, 36

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Costing (cont)Adoption grantYear 1

• 2 500 children per annum

• Adoption grant of 680 p.a. R20, 400, 000• Admin fee of R27, 00 p.a. 810, 000 • Total adoption grant per annum = R 21 210, 000• Year 2• 5000 children per annum• Adoption grant of 680, 00 p.a. R40, 800, 000• Admin fee of R27, 00 p.a. 1,620, 000 • Total adoption grant per annum R42, 420, 000

• Year 3 • 7 500 children per annum• Adoption grant of R 680 p.a. R 612 000,000• Admin fee of R27 p.a . 2,430,000• Total adoption grant per annum = R 614,430,000

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Action plan

Output Indicators Time Frame

Year1 Implementation of RACAP

Register operational March 2011

Identifying children who are adoptable

Audit of adoptable children in alternative care March 2011

Promotion of adoption services

Public awareness campaigns Community dialoguesMedia campaignRecruitment Campaign for adoptive parents

March 2010

Capacity building of services providers

Training of provincial and CPO staff March 2011

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Action planOutput Indicators Time Frame

Year 2Improve financial resources for adoption

Consultation on adoption subsidy proposal

March 2012

Increase number of social service professionals

Increase to 50% of required numbers March 2012

Year 3

Increase the number of children adopted

Increase number of children adopted by 20%

March 2012

Impact evaluation of the strategy

Study completed March 2012

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Recommendations

It is recommended that:• Portfolio Committee on Social Dvelopment takes cognizance of the

content of the Policy Framework and Strategy to promote adoption in South Africa.

• Note the approved the strategic action plan and

• Note the cost implications

1 ADOPTION POLICY FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 26- OCTOBER 2010.

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