Vol. 439 No. 4
20 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health the number of handicapped children who have been adopted in each of the last ten years; and whether he will consider the establishment, within each health board area, of a project group to encourage the adoption of handicapped children who are currently destined to a childhood in institutional care or fosterage.
The detailed information requested by the Deputy is not available because the Adoption Board does not distinguish between handicapped and other children in its annual analysis of adoption orders made by it. Inquiries made from the health boards indicate that the boards were involved in arranging the adoption of some 40 handicapped children during the past ten years. This includes 19 children placed by the Southern Health Board and 13 placed by the Eastern Health Board. No information is available as to the number of handicapped children placed for adoption by the voluntary adoption societies or adopted within the extended family.
The policy of the health boards is to seek adoptive families for all children in their care whose parents have consented to their placement for adoption. It is the practice for a health board social worker carrying out an adoption assessment to discuss with the prospective adoptive parents the area of handicap and to explore their attitude to it. This is done as a matter of routine in all cases and helps to identify couples who may be willing to adopt children with disabilities.
The small number of handicapped children in the care of health boards who are actually available for adoption would not justify the establishment of the type of regional project group suggested by the Deputy. I will, however, give sympathetic consideration to any request from the health boards for funding for specific initiatives aimed at further developing the availability of family placement services for children with special needs.
