Using the Internet to Find Families
For over six years our very own project manager Nick Glanville has been involved in trying to find families for children over the internet. Kirsty Worship interviewed him about BAAF's recent decision to explore this option and the use of the Internet to find families for children.
Hi. Could you tell us a little bit about why the internet might be a way to find families for children who are waiting to be adopted?
I think the fact of our existence speaks for itself. For the last seven years we have been involved in trying to find adopters and foster carers throughout the UK over the Internet. If it didn't work we probably wouldn't be here.
We have to recognise that the Internet is now being piped into over 50% of all households in the UK. People use it at work, in their own homes and even when travelling about and its most important use is to find information. It might be that you need details of hotels, electrical or household goods, insurance, professional services or anything else and you expect to be able to find out this information on the Internet. Adoption and fostering is and should be no different.
Surely when some are saying featuring children on the Internet is demeaning it is different?
I was talking about general information on adoption and fostering. In regard to general information I think that it must and should be made available.
In an ideal world where there would be no children waiting for a family, where there would be no chronic shortage of foster carers, we could then choose not to feature children on the Internet. But we all know the world isn't ideal. What we do know is that children who remain for significant periods in the care system don't fare very well. What we do know is that they are far more likely to have significant difficulties into adulthood. On virtually any statistics you look at those who have been in the care system are more likely to be homeless, unable or unwilling to stay within the law, less likely to be holding down a job or pursuing further education.
We have heard consistently from children in the care system, from adults who were in care, from social workers and others that we must do more, that we must try harder to find families for these children. Making full use of the Internet is just one of many ways in which we can do this.
One of the issues BAAF has highlighted is the possibility that children can be easily identified when featured over the Internet?
I think there are a few parts to this. Firstly children have been featured in newspapers for years by social services up and down the country; in fact I don't know one local authority that does not do this. There are some who think the Internet is somehow different and that may be to do with who they think are looking at this information on the Internet.
Anyway, these features in papers and on the internet are always produced by the child's social worker. If there are any concerns that a child might be identified they make a decision to use a different name, omit certain details, use the photo of a model, etc. I have not been involved in one case where a child has been identified, and as part of my job is to administer the LondonKIDS web site which has been running for 5 years now I think I have some idea of how real a problem this actually is. People are right to be concerned about this, they just need to put it in to a proper perspective.
You said in your last answer that people are concerned about the type of person who is surfing the Internet?
Yes, and this really is very frustrating. We all have to recognise that there are a few people who we would want to have nothing to do with children. These people are free to read newspaper adverts or surf the internet but for some reason a few people feel that having something on the Internet is in some way encouraging these people. I think the reverse is true. For example our web sites go into considerable detail about the steps that are taken to check upon all prospective foster carers and adopters. None of that appears in any newspaper or TV advert I have seen so I would say on balance there is, at the very least, no tangible difference between paper and Internet features of children who need families or foster carers.
I would go as far as to say its better featuring children on the Internet. You are not restricted to a limited number of words and you can advise people that there are rigorous checks in place that will discover anything untoward in their histories.
Would you welcome BAAF becoming involved in featuring children on the Internet?
I think that it has always been inevitable that the BAAF publication Be My Parent would move this way. And yes, I welcome any such move as it improves the chances of children being placed with new families. Children are being featured on a whole range of web sites, local authority web sites, newspaper web sites, and our own so its nothing new so why shouldn't BAAF do it.
Another point BAAF implied in their press release is that it would be better for their adoption agency to be the point of contact between those that might be thinking of adopting a child and the child's social worker?
I cannot really see much of an advantage in this. It's putting a further process between someone expressing an interest and then going on to attend an information evening about adoption. As a social worker if I had an advert for a child and ten people responded I would want to talk to each of them. I wouldn't want someone else who did not know the child and didn't know exactly the type of family the child needed to be an intermediary. If there was an avalanche of people responding I could see the point but unfortunately that is very rarely the case as the main problem is that for a large number of children no expressions of interest are made.
Do you think a Be My Parent web site will lose you business?
I hope so. It really would be good if it led to a very serious reduction in the number of children waiting for a family. I see it as strengthening LondonKIDS, UK KIDS and our other web sites. Firstly it would help to overcome the inertia that questions the legitimacy and appropriateness of using the Internet. Secondly our experience has been that web sites help to feed one another with viewers. We know that a large number of our viewers go on to looking at BAAF's web site and many others. We know too that some of their viewers go on to visit our pages.
