Transracial Adoptions: Latest Practice in Assessments, Matching and Placements

Who this is for

Adoption practitioners and managers (Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Regional Adoption Agencies, Local Authorities, and independent social workers), children’s social care services, children and family social workers, foster carers, and other professionals working with children and families.

Details

What is known about the well-being of children placed with parents who do not share their racial or ethnic heritage? Additionally, how can social workers assist parents in supporting their child’s ethnic identity and self-esteem while ensuring a thorough assessment process?

“It was very interesting to hear other professional perspective on the issues discussed. It was also beneficial to hear personal stories, to better understand the challenges and also strengths of transracial placements. From this, I have identified ways of which I could improve my practice in the future, particularly in relation to assessment discussions” – Attendee, 2022

Adolescence and emerging adulthood pose unique challenges to developing ethnic identity, particularly for transracial adoptees. We will highlight key findings from international studies on these topics and provide guidelines for practitioners working with transracial adoptive families.

This training aims to use the lived experience of adoptees alongside research findings to understand the challenges for children placed transracially or trans ethnically with adoptive parents and to think about the skills needed in assessment and beyond to assess and support families.

“It addressed the issue from so many perspectives – thinking about assessments, follow up work with families, personal histories and experiences of adopters and adoptees. It made for a very interactive and really interesting seminar” – Attendee, 2022

The training day will be facilitated by Jan Way MBE who is a social worker, adoption advisor, adoptee and a transracial adoptive parent. Joanna Burnett is a panel member and a transracial adoptee.

Learning outcomes

• To learn and understand the challenges to the adoptee of being transracially placed
• To consider key research findings and the value they can bring to understanding
• To explore the key ideas that workers should focus upon in assessment in order to built rigour into the process and ensure the child’s needs remain paramount

About the trainer

Jan Way MBE

Jan has been a social worker since 1975, working in a range of settings including hospitals, local authorities and adoption agencies. For the last 35 years she has worked in the adoption field, specialising in intercountry adoption and working as a senior manager for IAC- The Centre for Adoption. She now acts as the training and research advisor for the agency and as a panel chair. She has published several articles in journals on intercountry adoption and the issues and challenges that arise with these placements and runs specialist training sessions on these topics. In 2019 she was awarded an MBE for her work in intercountry adoption.

Jan is also an adopted person and an adoptive mother, having adopted a daughter from South America. In addition to her daughter, who is now 35, she has two grown up birth daughters.

Instructions

A member of staff will be in touch with attendees one week prior to the event to share a pre-event delegate pack.

If you have any questions regarding this webinar, please contact us at info@cvaa.org.uk. We will aim to answer your query within two working days.

CVAA accept online payments only. In case you do not have instant access to your company card, we suggest using your personal card instead to book a training event and claim it back with your agency in your expenses. Requesting an invoice to pay for our standard practice events is not possible.