The NSW Government are set to launch the nation’s first ever Institute of Adoption to increase the number of adoptions in NSW.
The new Institute will look to provide vulnerable children and young people with permanent, safe and nurturing homes. The Government will provide $2.85 million to establish the facility.
Open Adoption
The Institute will also facilitate Open Adoption, an approach that promotes ongoing contact between the adopted child, the biological parents, and the adoptive parents where it is in the child’s best interests.
Safe Home for Life
Making open adoption for children quicker and easier is a key part of the NSW Government’s Safe Home for Life child protection reform package. The package also focuses on improving parenting, increasing parental responsibility and providing more permanency for children and young people in care.
Removing barriers to adoption
Key figures in the nation adoption reform debate including Founder of Adopt Change and NSW Australian of the Year Deborra-Lee Furness, see reducing the barriers to adoption as a vital to the effective protection of the State’s most vulnerable children and young people.
Mrs Furness welcomed the initiative. “We (Adopt Change) look forward to working with the Government to establish a research Institute that will lead best practice support and education for families who adopt from within NSW and internationally” she said.
“The institute has the potential to lead the way in creating a gold standard in serving adoptive families.”