Adoption of Thai children -UK

[Nick]

This is long - but up to date (excuse the politics). If you know differently please say so.

BACKGROUND
In the UK, the left wing of the Labour party was concerned that under the (then) existing rules, adopted children usually went to middle class (affluent) families, unless the children were relatives of the adoptive parents. This put poorer families at a disadvantage in their ability to adopt, and so they proposed to change the rules. At the same time, they wanted adoption opened up to other than the traditional 'nuclear' family, to include single people, lesbian and homosexual couples etc. This became official policy in a White paper in 1998. Major concerns were raised about the possible abuse of adopted children, and so a new form of 'investigation' of the adoptive parents was proposed, taking it out of the hands of the local councils and putting it under the central Government. All these new rules were passed into law by Act of Parliament in 2000.

The flood of new applicants for adoption overwhelmed the system, in particular the budget for investigative staff. Hence a charge was introduced for the investigation, based on the amount of work required. This charge is presently a minimum base fee of ฃ3,500. Legal certification of documents etc runs to about another ฃ2,000 In spite of these charges, the demand is such that the authorities are over two years in arrears in their investigations.

This led to an increase in the number of people going overseas to adopt children, which the authorities viewed as them trying to bypass the system because they would not pass the investigation process, rather than the inefficiency of the system.

As a result, the UK Government entered into agreements with various countries, including Thailand, that the foreign governments would only permit adoption after the prospective parents had been cleared in the UK. Thailand, at that time had an official 'pool' of children for adoption, mostly between 9 -18 months old which is the most sought after age.

NOW
Despite the thoroughness of the UK investigation process, Thailand

[valentine]

If they are your Thai wifes children it is much simpler just to change their family name by deed poll and to all intents and purposes this has the same desired effect, they are known by your name. No investigations, no waiting time and of course minimal cost.

[BobHelm]

Sadly none of what you said surprises me at all.
If ever our government (and it doesn't matter which party) tries to resolve a perceived problem you can be sure of a few things.
A. It won't resolve the problem.
B. It will create a completely new problem that is far worse and more far reaching than the original issue.
C. It will mean employment for more civil servants.
D. It will mean more employment for people in the legal profession.
E. It will result in at best, inconvenience and at worst, suffering by ordinary people in the street.
F. It will result in more legislation that will start again at A.

[businessman]

Tried to adopt a Thai child while living here but it's almost impossible to do.So much of what you need has to be done in the UK and you are talking many years of effort and stress.