Position at the outset of the work

Alan and Melissa Phillips (ages 34 and 33) have made an application to adopt to the voluntary children's agency specialising in adoption for which I work. This is being processed within the relevant legislative and procedural frameworks (1976 Adoption Act , 1983 Adoption Agency Regulation, circular LAC(84)3, agency procedural guidelines). Statutory references have been taken up and there are no contra-indicators to proceeding. Two personal references have also been obtained and are supportive.

The applicants attended two full day preparation workshops for prospective adopters. They are a married white couple with two birth children, Conor (age 9) and Joanne (age 6). I was asked to undertake a home study with the family and to present their application to the agency's adoption panel (see genogram, Figure 1).

Negotiation of the work

The concepts of partnership and empowerment underpin and inform this work. Empowerment of Alan, Melissa and the children began at my first contact and would develop over time. The best way of progressing this is, I believe, to make the work as open and as transparent as possible. Part of this negotiation was orienting the family to how I saw us working together. By being open, clear and honest with them I saw myself as modelling the relationship I hoped we would develop during the course of the work.

Together we looked at our mutual expectations and sought to clarify them. We had a reasonable consensus at this point regarding the time frame and the frequency of our contact. We agreed to meet on a fortnightly basis and envisaged that the home study would take approximately six months to complete.

I defined the work very much as a shared task. My job – as I saw it – was to help them make explicit and understand how their family functioned in relation to the needs of children who become available for adoption. I had certain expertise and experience which I made explicit, while also emphasising that they were the experts on their family. I was endeavouring to get them alongside me as curious, enthusiastic co-researchers in a joint venture.

Within this context it was important to acknowledge the issue of power: the power to make a recommendation to the panel lay with me, and to surrender this would be incompatible with safeguarding the adoptive child's best interests.