Satwinder Sandhu is Director of Adoption and Permanence Services at PACT. He talks here of the need for LGBT applicants to be assessed fairly by agencies, and of the specific strengths that many bring to adoption.
It is 5 years since the law changed allowing gay couples to adopt jointly, and it feels like things are really gathering momentum. More and more of us are adopting and it is becoming the most common way for members of our community to become parents. We have a choice.
It is hard to think that as recently as last year there were still some agencies wanting to ‘opt out’ of assessing LGBT adopters on faith grounds. They failed to see that many members of the LGBT community also have a faith and may have wished to adopt through an agency which could support their values and beliefs. However, applicants do have a choice. LGBT adopters could have exercised their choice and simply not approached such agencies, but that is not the point. Such scenarios create a ‘them and us’ and the bottom line was that such agencies were flouting the law.
I am currently Director of Adoption & Permanence Services at PACT based in London and Reading, and I am fortunate that my agency, our Trustees and our panel strongly believe that any exemption for agencies would have been discriminatory, grossly unjust, and undermining of the efforts made to date to reinforce equality and legislation across public services.
I fully believe in the right of organisations offering public services to uphold their own unique sets of values and beliefs, but also believe that in 2011 it should not be possible for such organisations to operate in a discriminatory manner and for this to be sanctioned by exemptions to statutory laws and legislation. Would this really be in the best interests of looked after children in public care? At a time when all agencies, particularly those in the voluntary sector, are struggling to recruit adopters who can truly offer children secure, loving and safe permanent homes, sexuality should play no part in the decision making process.
PACT’s origins are faith based but our services are not. For 100 years we have served the local communities in our diocese and beyond. Our agency welcomes applications from all prospective adopters and actively encourages LGBT prospective adopters. Our membership of New Family Social is demonstrative of this commitment as are our successfully approved LGBT adopters who have created their own families. LGBT staff, including me, in our adoption department, are ‘out’ and respected.
From our experience LGBT applicants come to the adoption process having thought through the implications of adoption in more detail that heterosexual applicants, as the process of ‘coming out’ may well have involved thoughts and discussions around parenting and acceptance that a birth child may not be a possibility. Additionally, LGBT prospective adopters often are more open to considering older children, or those with additional or special needs, including those children classed as ‘hard to place’.
Statistics from the Adoption Register show that lesbian and gay couples approved to adopt are significantly more likely to be in mixed heritage relationships than their heterosexual counterparts. As a panel chair this has certainly been my experience of applicants being approved. Given the high representation of mixed heritage children waiting for adoption it fits that the lesbian and gay adoption community have much to offer.
My advice to all LGBT enquirers is to shop around and go where you feel comfortable and to an agency that is able to offer a good standard of support to you as a LGBT applicant by recognising your identity as an integral part of you. Each agency, whether statutory or voluntary, will have its own quirks and personalities but the bottom line should be you get a fair and equitable assessment on your suitability to adopt and hopefully get matched with a child.
If you have doubts or are not comfortable with how an agency or its representatives treat you, or you think they are making assumptions about you based on your sexuality, move on and do not give up until you find that agency. You have much to offer a child and you do have a right to choose.
