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Adoption
Hammersmith's Children's Service Adoption Agency began to function
in January, 1966, with the appointment of an Adoptions Officer; and a
part-time Child Care Officer, working mainly with the unmarried mothers,
was subsequently added to the staff.
As private Adoption Agencies are free to choose the kind of child
they will accept for placement and usually consider only babies with ioncomplicated
backgrounds, the Hammersmith Adoption Agency has tried to
place children with more difficult backgrounds who would otherwise have
had to be received into the Authority's care. The children placed often
have poor medical, psychiatric, or social histories. A large proportion
have parents of mixed races.
Because we have "difficult" children to place, we need to consider
each prospective couple of likely adopters on their own merits. Hence we
have no set rules regarding the eligibility of the adopters. We feel
that the couple who comply with the legal requirements, have a stable
and happy marriage which can expand to include adopted children, and offer
love, and good care, make the most suitable adopters. In the past, adoption
agencies tended to lay down stringent qualifications on the age, religious
background, and the number of children already in a family, This does not
mean we do not consider these factors; but we have widened our approach,
so that our main consideration is the welfare and happiness of the child.
Adoption Agencies throughout the country have found that the number
of children available for adoption has decreased as a result both of the
wider availability of contraceptive measures, (specifically "the pill")»
and the working of the Ahortion Act, An additional factor in Hammersmith
was that both our full-time and part-time officers left during 1970, so
that the Agency was not functioning at all for a period. Excellent new
staff were, however, appointed; but it seemed for a time as though the
reasons mentioned above would result in there being insufficient adoption
work fully to occupy them. However, they rapidly became known to the other
social services in the area, and particularly to the medical-social
workers in the local hospitals, and by the end of 1970, the volume of
adoption work had gone back to its former level.

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