Ministers tell social workers not to bar interracial adoptions

Couples wishing to adopt children from a different ethnic or cultural background should find it easier following new government guidance to be given to social workers.

While there is no explicit bar on interracial adoption, ministers have been anxious that too many children languish in care because social workers hold out for “the perfect match” rather than considering whether the would-be adoptive parents can provide a good home.

The guidelines, which effectively aim at making it easier for white couples to adopt children from a differing ethnic background, are to be unveiled on Tuesday by Michael Gove, the education secretary, who was himself adopted as a child and is expected to speak of his experience.

The guidance does not change the law but makes clear that race should not be a “deal breaker” if the prospective adopters show they are able to parent the child. The Department for Education confirmed that guidelines will state explicitly that, where a family can meet a child’s emotional and development, ethnic origin should not be a barrier.

Barring adoption on ethnic grounds “is not child-centred and is unacceptable”, says the forthcoming document, to be the basis of guidelines issued to local authorities and adoption agencies. “A prospective adopter is able to parent a child with whom they do not share the same ethnicity, provided they can meet the child’s other identified needs.

“It is unacceptable for a child to be denied adoptive parents solely on the grounds that the child and prospective adopter do not share the same racial or cultural background.”

Social workers should not delay adoption in the hope of at some point finding an ethnic match for a child. “Time is not on the side of the child, and a delay in placing a child with a new family can damage their development, contribute to further emotional harm, reduce their chances of finding a permanent family, or increase the chance of adoption breakdown,” the guidance warns.

Children from ethnic minority backgrounds wait three times longer on average than white children to be placed.

Currently, social workers are required to give “significant consideration” to race when placing children because of concerns they may struggle to settle in with families from different cultural backgrounds.

Ministers are understood to have long felt that authorities should not be “over-sensitive” on the issue. The children’s minister, Tim Loughton, said last November there was “no reason at all” why white couples should not adopt from different racial backgrounds. “If it is a great couple offering a good, loving, stable permanent home, that should be the number one consideration,” he said.

“Too many social workers are holding out for the perfect match, so suitable couples are turned away and children are staying in care for years as a result.”The government is also expected to announce extra measures designed to increase the number of adoptions overall.