Organising child adoption

The annual number of children left without parental care adopted in Lithuania is about two per cent. There were 1803 adoptable children in 2013. The number of adopted children has been steadily declining over the past three years (245 children were adopted 2011, 210 children were adopted in 2012, and 187 ones in 2013). “Children without parental care are a particularly vulnerable part of the society, so it is important to ensure that they receive the warmth and care of the family as soon as possible. The audit assessed the adoption procedure, where every stage determines the well-being of both the adoptable child and the family wishing to adopt him or her,” said Auditor General Giedrė Švedienė.

The success of the adoption depends on the sustainability of the performance of the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service, child rights protection divisions of municipalities, the staff of care homes, certified social workers, and on the preparation of prospective adoptive parents. The auditors found that not all adoptable children are offered for adoption because their possibilities to be adopted lack proper evaluation. A number of children without parental care are not offered for adoption because the child does not want to be adopted (34 per cent of such cases) or because of the establishment of close relationships of the child with his/her biological family, relatives, or other persons (22 per cent). The auditors reported that almost half of the municipal child rights protection divisions trust the information received from the care home instead of taking part in listening to the child’s opinion on his/her possible adoption. There were cases when children expressed their wish to be adopted when communicating directly with the municipal staff, meanwhile the care homes had given contrary information. In addition, there is no methodological guidance on how to assess relationships between an adoptable child and other persons.

One of the key conditions for successful adoption is the selection of an appropriate family. Those wishing to adopt a child have to complete the training which, among other things, is also intended to examine the prospective parents’ suitability for adoption. However, professionals do not know how to assess the adequacy of the income and financial obligations of the potential adopters and their capability to take care of the child in terms of the health condition due to a lack of clear assessment criteria. Successful integration of a child in a new family depends on adequate preparation of all members of the family; however, the children already living in the family are not included in the preparatory training.

The audit found that more than half of the offers to adopt a child had been placed several times due to the absence of detailed regulation of the family selection criteria and procedure and functions of the persons involved in that procedure. The staff of 77 children care homes out of 95 (i.e. 77 per cent) were not trained in how to prepare a child for adoption. The trainings were not attended by the staff of homes for infants with the largest number of adoptable children, the staff of  non-governmental children care home, or foster families. It was also found that no favourable conditions had been provided for establishing a relationship between a child and potential adopters during the adoption, since their meetings were not organised in a proper manner – for example, privacy was not ensured during the meetings at the care homes. More than half of the surveyed adoptive parents said that neither the social workers, nor the staff of the care homes discussed how the meeting with a child should proceed or provided any help to the parents at this stage.

The auditors also pointed out a lack of professional post-adoption services. Despite the fact that most of the adoption professionals agree that contacts should be maintained with the family for some time, this issue has not been regulated in any way. Families start seeking professional help on their own initiative, usually in cases of long-standing problems.  

There is no adoption promotion strategy in the country. So far the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service has been taking only case-by-case publicity measures, information has not been reaching the public. 65 per cent of all municipalities have not undertaken any publicity campaigns over the last two years to encourage families to adopt children deprived of parental care.

The auditors made recommendations to the Ministry of Social Security and Labour and the State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service on how to improve the adoption process.