Project Description
The number of breakdowns in the adoption placement process has been rising in recent years. A national study in 2014 by the University of Bristol reported a twelve year post-adoption breakdown rate of 3.2%, but many more break down before an adoption order has been made. Most adoptions break down during the teenage years, with teenagers 10 times more at risk of disruption compared with children under the age of four, even when the adoption had occurred at a younger age. Child-on-parent violence was a key reason given by families for the reason a placement had been disrupted.
AdOpt is a parenting programme for adoptive parents of children aged 3-8 years, both pre- and post-adoption, ideally within the first two years of placement. Adapted and further developed from a US-based programme (KEEP) for application in the UK, it is designed as a preventative programme to help parents understand and respond to the complex needs of their children. AdOpt is one of a very small number of programmes in the UK specifically aimed at adoptive parents that uses a rigorous theoretical evidence base to improve adoptive relationships.
The aim of this project was to test the applicability of AdOpt to a UK setting. AdOpt is a group-based programme informed by contemporary research in the areas of neuroscience and developmental psychology (social learning and attachment theory models of development). AdOpt groups are delivered by two trained facilitators, at least one of whom is either an adoptive parent or has substantial experience in the adoption field, and one other facilitator who has experience in social care and in background theory linked to the programme. Sessions are 90 minutes long and run weekly for 16 weeks.
The AdOpt project was part of a £4.1m Scaling Evidence-based Interventions grant to the National Implementation Service to increase the use of five evidence-based interventions in children’s services: KEEP, RESuLT, STEPS-B, MST-FIT and AdOpt. The DfE-funded independent evaluation published in 2017 found that • AdOpt is effective in reducing overall problems and specifically conduct problems • the programme had positive effects on child outcomes and parenting practices as well as parenting satisfaction, which are recognised as important contributors to positive long-term well-being and wider family functioning • adoptive parents felt increasingly supported, more connected to others, less isolated, and reported their experiences as adoptive parents as being more normalised and understood by themselves.
Evaluation
The DfE-funded independent evaluation published in 2017 found that • AdOpt is effective in reducing overall problems and specifically conduct problems • the programme had positive effects on child outcomes and parenting practices as well as parenting satisfaction, which are recognised as important contributors to positive long-term well-being and wider family functioning • adoptive parents felt increasingly supported, more connected to others, less isolated, and reported their experiences as adoptive parents as being more normalised and understood by themselves.