TODAY marks the start of this year's National Adoption Week which focuses on the need to find the right adopters for sibling groups.
This week's event highlights the need to find families for some of society's most vulnerable children. The latest official figures taken from the Adoption Register for Northern Ireland (ARIS) show that 37 per cent of children with an adoption care plan in 2016/17 were part of a sibling group who needed to be placed together for adoption.
A number of parents have spoken about why they decided to adopt a sibling group and whether they would recommend it to other prospective adopters. Names have been changed.
Adoptive parent Kathryn and her husband adopted a sibling group of three. She said: “When social services came to us initially it was about adopting Zac and Sam but when they mentioned that the boys had a younger baby brother we were keen to try to keep the three boys together.
"Coming from a family of three girls myself, with the exact same age differences as our three boys, I couldn’t imagine Joel being split from his brothers and never experiencing being part of our family.
“Watching our three boys grow up together as brothers has to be the most rewarding experience of my life. Reuniting them was the best thing we've ever done. Even though they're three individuals, they'll always have shared history and shared experiences.”
Adoptive mum Anne said there have been hard times in her family’s experience of sibling adoption.
“I know I have given my children a lot but in my darker moments I think well, if nothing else, I have kept them together. They were a breath away from separation on more than one occasion," she said.
“The bond they have with each other is the deepest they have with anyone. I believe it has been, still is and will continue to be the single most sustaining thing in their lives.”
Priscilla McLoughlin, director of Adoption UK in Northern Ireland, said it can be difficult for siblings to find an adoptive family.
“Sibling groups are among the children who wait longest to be placed for adoption in Northern Ireland," she said.
"We are keen to encourage more applicants to consider adopting brothers and sisters.
“Adopting a sibling group and enabling brothers and sisters who have already experienced the loss of birth parents to grow up together is hugely rewarding. But parenting two or more children who have experienced trauma as a result of early life and pre-birth experiences can also be very challenging.
"All families who adopt require ongoing support and it is vitally important that families are able to access the help they and their children need.”
In the last year 120 children in Northern Ireland were adopted from the care system. Most were adopted without the consent of their birth parents due to difficult pre-birth and early life experiences such as exposure to drugs and alcohol in the womb, domestic violence, chronic neglect and physical or sexual abuse.
Adoption UK provides support for families and helps adopters become “therapeutic parents” to assist their children’s recovery from trauma.
Historically, most adoptive families were childless couples unable to have children by birth but the profile of applicants is changing. Increasingly, single applicants and same-sex couples are coming on board as adoptive parents in addition to applicants who are already parents by birth and wish to extend their family through adoption.
Adoption applicants are required to be over 21 years in age and while there is no upper age limit to adopting, there should be no more than 45 years between the age of the applicant (or the youngest partner where a couple has applied) and the age of the child.
Applicants are welcomed from all social, economic, cultural and religious backgrounds.
For more information and to download the Regional Adoption and Fostering Service information pack visit adoptionandfostering.hscni.net/adoption.
