The Role of Social Workers in Intercountry Adoption: An Analysis of the Experience of Adopters from Romania

Abstract

People who adopted children from Romania between 1990 and 1992 experienced considerable difficulties arranging the adoptions, both in Romania and the UK. It is not known how many more potential adopters were unsuccessful. Based on a study of 148 families adopting 165 children, Celia Beckett, Diana Bredenkamp, Jenny Castle, Christine Groothues and the English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study team shed light on the difficulties encountered in England and implications of agency and non-agency practice in relation to these adopters.

The placements are progressing well, but there is some evidence that those applicants who were approved by specialist local authority social workers have a more sustained sense of the importance for the child of issues concerning their background and identity.