1. What assessment has the Minister made of the procedures for forced adoptions, in light of a recent increase in the number of cases? OAQ54158

Thank you for that question. Our primary aim is to support children to stay with their birth families where possible. Care decisions, including on adoption, are taken solely in the best interests of the child. The number of court-ordered adoptions has been falling, but we recognise that adoption can offer stable, loving families and good outcomes.

Thank you for that answer, Deputy Minister. A large part of my casework is taken up with matters related to social services, in particular with regard to the adoption services. This is not surprising given that, in the South Wales East region alone, some 280 children were referred for adoption in 2016-17—a massive 66 per cent increase on the previous year.

I understand that this trend has been replicated throughout Wales according to the National Adoption Service. It is laudable that the First Minister has recognised these trends, as outlined in yesterday's statement, and has issued instructions to attempt to alleviate what can only be called an epidemic of such adoptions. However, the decision of whether or not to remove a child from its birth family lies with the social worker involved, and as highlighted below, many of these decisions seem to be endemically flawed. One of my cases involved a child receiving a minor injury who was then removed from their family for six months, causing immense trauma to her parents and grandparents. It was subsequently found that there was no case to answer as far as neglect or the deliberate inflicting of this injury. Indeed, the child suffered far more injuries whilst in care, although these were such as one would normally associate with a young child growing up. Llywydd, we, on these benches, feel that there is an undeniably—

You're not addressing me; you need to ask your question of the Deputy Minister, and in having taken a long time to actually find your question, you're now taking a long time to ask your question. Can you please ask the question?

Does the Minister not agree that there is an undeniably strong case for investigating the whole adoption service, especially given the spiralling cost to the public purse?

As I said in answer to the question that you read it out, what we're trying to do is to prevent children needing adoption by trying to keep them at home with their families. So, we're investing in edge of care services, which are now operating in all the regions in Wales. We've given £2.3 million to help prevent children who have been adopted coming back into care, which does happen because of the support that is needed for adoption. The decision to adopt is a very serious decision, as the Member recognises. It does require a decision by a court, so it's not at the whim of a social worker. It's very carefully thought out and it should be the last resort; every effort should have been made before you reach the situation where an adoption takes place, particularly if it is against the wishes of the natural birth parents. So, I think what we are doing in Wales is trying to shift the balance. We're trying to make sure that fewer children come into care and then need adoption, and for the ones who absolutely do need adoption, after making every effort to stop it happening, as much support as possible is given to make those adoptions successful.

In yesterday's statement on improving outcomes for looked-after children, you mentioned, Minister, that you've seen the number of looked-after children in Wales increase by 34 per cent over the past 15 years, and you've promised to look at this closely. I wonder if you have or you would consider launching an investigation into the rise of looked-after children as part of this process.

I think it's very difficult to know what has actually caused this rise in the number of children, and I know that there have been calls to look at why this has actually happened. It does seem to be for multiple reasons, and it's very difficult to actually choose one particular reason. But, certainly, in the work that we're doing now on trying to prevent children coming into care—I mean that 34 per cent is an alarming figure and we certainly don't want that to go on, and that's why we're working with all the local authorities in Wales to try and bring things down. During the process of this very intensive work we're doing, we will look to see what more needs to be done, because it is alarming and if it continues to go on, it will be very bad news.

I fully support your policy and the direction it's going, I think the issue is that filtering down, because, on the ground level, children seem to be taken into care far too easily. So, my question is: how can we empower parents? Could we create a professional advocacy service for parents? Because there seems to be a blanket thing called avoiding future emotional harm, and child after child after child is being taken into care, put up for adoption. I'm trying to support one mother at this moment whose life has been ruined by her interaction with children's services. And she took the step of aborting her unborn child to avoid it being taken into care, and that whole family is devastated. What strikes me, with case after case after case, is the complete lack of rights and the complete lack of empowerment. And if you're a parent who's been through the care system yourself, then you are treated in an appalling manner sometimes. So, how can we empower parents?

One of the things we are doing is setting up the Reflect project, which the Member may know about, which is for women who have actually had a child already taken off them, so they have already got one child in the care system. So, the Reflect project is an effort to try to stop that happening again. So, again, we've got that project rolled out all over Wales. It's not enough, there's a huge amount that needs to be done, and I absolutely agree that we have to give as much support as we can for parents to keep their children, and we do have a long way to go. But we are doing it with the support that we are giving and, in particular, I would recommend that the Member looks at the Reflect project, which looks at the particular sort of case that he describes.