The conference

I was right, the alarm went off way too early!! I dived in the bathroom first, as it doesn't take me too long to get ready in a morning (I don't wear make up - can't be bothered faffing around with it). On the way to the conference venue we grabbed some breakfast to go, which was ok but not wonderful. We were there quite early, so booked in easily with no queues lol. I was a bit disappointed that the only drinks on offer were tea and coffee, and I didn't have the right change for the vending machine so couldn't get a drink :-(

The conference was Chaired by David Holmes, Chief Executive of BAAF. He gave a short intro, before handing over to Celia Beckett of Kings College/Institute of Psychiatry who presented an overview of the findings from the English and Romanian adoptees study. This study has been following a group of Romanian adoptees who were adopted into the UK in the early 1990's and comparing them to a group of UK domestic adoptees. Basically the study has refuted media concerns about these adoptions - that they would be a high level of breakdown (WRONG - very very few adoption breakdowns); that the children would be so profoundly damaged by their early experiences that they wouldn't attach to their new families (NOT SURE - Ms Beckett said they had attached, but her descriptions of some of the children's behaviours didn't indicate a secure attachment?!?!); that adopting two unrelated, close in age children together would be a disaster (NO - there were clear advantages to having an adopted sibling). There was a lot more to the presentation than that, but that's as much as I'm writing lol.
The next speaker was Dr Peter Selman, University of Newcastle talking about Intercountry Adoption in the new millennium. During this talk Dr Selman compared the rates of international adoption (corrected so they were as a percentage of population) of the UK and other Western countries, and we adopt a dismal few children from overseas!! He also made a credible argument that the UK needs a proper "agency-style" Central Authority, that will make the effort to cultivate relationships with sending countries and will mediate between prospective adopters and their chosen country. If only...
After lunch was a talk by Chris Atkins and Dr Perlita Harris regarding the support needs of transnationally adopted children and adults. This was interesting as both speakers were international adoptees themselves, but unfortunately they just seemed to read off the slides rather than expanding on the info presented on the big screen.
Then there was a presentation by Greg Kelly, Queens University of Belfast on Aspects of Intercountry adoption in Ireland. The most interesting thing (for me anyhow) was the fact that people in Southern Ireland adopt many more children (corrected to a percentage of their population) than do the Northern Irish, which is the bit that is still part of Britain. I wonder why?!?! Mr Kelly suggested it could have something to do with a collective bureaucratic guilt over the children sent to far flung parts of the Empire in years gone by, but that doesn't really hold water.
Next up was John Simmonds, Director of Policy, Research and Development at BAAF. His presentation was What does research tell us about adopted children's development. It wasn't aimed specifically at international adoption, and just seemed a strange thing to have in there! I wonder if they just couldn't find a different, more relevant speaker?
Lastly we heard from Gill Haworth Director of Intercountry Adoption Centre. This again seemed to be saying that the UK needs a proper "agency-style" Central Authority, as not having one limits the options prospective adopters have.
After a fairly short question and answer session the conference was over, not a minute too soon as I was starving (I'd been near the back of the queue for lunch and there hadn't been much left) and thought I was going to fall asleep, then again my numb bum was keeping me awake lol.
I enjoyed the conference and hearing what the various speakers had to say. I didn't like the speakers who just read out what was displayed on the screens and also felt there could have been more time organised for discussion. There were a lot of people who wanted to ask questions who didn't get the chance.