Oona King

Wednesday, 06 March 2013 20:58

Help for our most vulnerable children

adopt
Hot off the press: here's the report on Adoption that myself and other members of the House of Lords have worked on for many months.

We argue that adoptive parents should receive more support to help them care for vulnerable children. This is because children adopted from care have often experienced neglect and abuse and therefore may have a range of complex needs. There should be a legal obligation on Local Authorities and others to provide post-adoption support to children and adopters, where that support would previously have been paid for by the state: it just isn't fair to expect adoptive parents to pick up the financial price tag (on top of the emotional challenges) from giving a loving home to Britain's most vulnerable children. 

Published in Adoption
Tuesday, 19 June 2012 00:00

Oona King talks about adoption

As she welcomes a third baby, Oona King talks to Rosamund Urwin about motherhood, the struggles of adoption and why she’ll be voting for her old opponent in the mayoral election

Oona King’s local pub in Mile End could scarcely have more appropriate reading material on its loo doors: a list of memorable lines and gaffes from Boris and Ken. Among them is Johnson’s bizarre quip “Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts”, and the quote that has come back to haunt Livingstone: “These rich b******s just don’t get it. No one should be allowed to vote in a British election, let alone sit in Parliament, unless they pay their full share of tax.”

Published in In the Press
Tuesday, 13 December 2011 11:29

Adoption

Baroness King of Bow: I welcome the Government's efforts to improve the life chances of our most vulnerable children, but does the Minister share my concern that adoption of children with more complex needs-often older children, those who have suffered abuse or neglect-is often delayed because the Government will not provide funding for post-adoption services? Instead, we say to adopters, "You pick up the pieces. You look after a difficult child no one else will take and you pay for their specialist medical health requirements". Will the Government and the Minister review that funding policy so that we give our most vulnerable children the chance of a loving home?

Hansard Link: Adoption (2 contributions)

Published in Oral Questions
Monday, 27 February 2012 09:53

Improving the adoption system in the UK

A fortnight before my adopted daughter's arrival date, as I set up the cot in the baby's room and excitedly folded nappies and miniature clothes, I took a call from a social worker. Due to a previously overlooked piece of discretionary bureaucracy, she told me matter-of-factly that she might now delay the adoption by as much as a year. I was gripped by rage, horror and helplessness. That is the experience, for one reason or another, of too many prospective adopters. And at the same time vulnerable children languish in care – every extra week that they are separated from their “forever family” makes it harder for them to adjust throughout the rest of their lives.

Published in Adoption
Monday, 27 February 2012 09:53

Adopting abroad

Earlier this year I stood in the dusty doorway of an African orphanage in the Congo, rage consuming me as I watched two babies moan in pain. They were covered in flies and filth, misery etched on their faces. Their eyes were sealed with mucus. Tiny stick arms hung limply over distended stomachs.

For these children, there was no chance of adoption, let alone a new home with celebrity millionaires. Less than 100 yards away was the room they would move to within the next fortnight. The mortuary.

Published in Adoption
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