The Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted the devastating impact of systematic racism and racial inequality in our society and raised the urgent need for action and change to address this.
Adoption West is committed to better understanding racism and to standing in solidarity against it.
We are actively and consciously striving to become an Anti-Racist Organisation, acknowledging the crucial need to do more to address racism and inequality. We recognise the responsibility we hold, as individual workers and as an organisation working with children and adoptive families, to continually examine our own beliefs and practices, alongside organisational culture and policies, taking tangible action to challenge and remedy the impact of existing racism and oppression. We aim to treat everyone with respect, ensuring fair and equal access to our service, ensuring that discrimination is challenged and remedied.
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups face disparities in all areas of UK life and we are acutely aware of the lack of racial parity in the care system. A higher representation of Children in Care are from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds compared to the general population. Many of the children who wait the longest to be matched and placed with adoptive families are from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and these children are less likely to go on to be adopted.
Whilst research has noted a general openness to adoption within many Black and Minority Ethnic communities, there are markedly fewer individuals and couples from these communities coming forward to be assessed to adopt. We aim to better understand and address the barriers that need to be overcome, to ensure that we have a pool of approved adopters that better reflect the ethnic backgrounds and identity needs of the children requiring adoptive families.
We are particularly receptive to the different views and perspectives of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities to help us to develop our service and to promote anti oppressive practice and representation.
With increased focus on the impact of racism and inequality in the work we undertake with adoptive families we embrace conscious anti-racist parenting, promoting an environment that is inclusive to all, where diversity and difference is celebrated.
Adoption West fully accepts that as an organisation where employees are predominantly from a White British background, we have a duty to consider the privilege we hold, taking steps to change a system which unfairly upholds many of these privileges at a cost to others. We recognise that tackling racism and inequality can feel overwhelming and that it is easy to fear getting things wrong. However, we understand that this can lead to inaction, risking us being complicit in maintaining the status quo.
We therefore strive to create an organisation which promotes a safe environment for reflection and learning, where individuals are enabled to have uncomfortable conversations, to unpick their own unconscious bias and where challenge and change is welcomed and acted upon.
Our hope is that this will contribute to meaningful and tangible progress, towards fulfilling our responsibilities as an Anti-Racist Organisation.
