The United Kingdom childrens charity Coram has pioneered a unique adoption system designed to help at-risk women and their children. Called concurrent planning, the plan places newborns with a potential adoptive family within days of the birth, while providing the birth mother with the support she needs.

A Nov. 2 article on the British news website TimesOnline provided the following details about the effort:

Concurrent planning runs for up to one year, during which the baby is cared for by the adoptive family while the natural mother is given a chance to turn her life around and show she could look after the child.

Unusually, the prospective adoptive parents agree regularly to bring the baby to see the mother up to five times a week so that the relationship can be maintained.

The charity offers the mother intensive support during this time to give her the best possible chance to sort out her problems. At the end of the year, if social workers judge she still poses a risk to the child, the adoption goes ahead immediately.

Labels: international, UK

Posted By: Aspen/CRC