Help others create a better life for a child

There is an important debate in Parliament this evening. One that you may not have heard about because it affects a minority community – self-employed adoptive parents.

I’ve recently started to look into adoption and will be starting my application later this year. What I didn’t realise, until I started exploring the options, is that self-employed people do not get the same support as employed people. There are thousands of kids in the system, looking for a permanent home. The vast majority of them have been removed from their birth parents by the courts and so they are all traumatised in some way. I would think that if you have good people willing to give these children a stable home and to spend the time working to repair this damage, they should be supported however we can!

Now technically I am not self-employed because I have a limited company, but I am still a one-woman band and I am still going to have to bank enough through my business to be able to support myself as I take the time to support my child in those early days of a new home.

On my discovery journey about adoption, I started to follow Not a Fictional Mum on Instagram and she was the one who started the petition to get equal treatment for self-employed people. They are almost at 15k signatures as I write, and it would be amazing to get them over this before the debate this evening. Please take a moment to sign it.

Having signed the petition I received a reply from the Government which is so contradictory it is ridiculous! Have a look at these selected paragraphs:

The Government would like to emphasise how much it values people who come forward to take on the challenging but rewarding role of being an adoptive parent.

?Fantastic! So support them….

Maternity payments, such as Maternity Allowance, are designed to provide a measure of earnings replacement to help pregnant women take time off work in the later stages of pregnancy, and to prepare for and recover from childbirth, in the interests of their own health and wellbeing, and that of their baby. They are not intended to assist with the costs associated with a new child. For this reason, only birth mothers qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance.

Hang on a second! Firstly – do they not realise that many women who adopt have experienced struggles trying to get pregnant or have dealt with miscarriages? It seems pretty insensitive to say that maternity covers just the physical aspects of giving birth! Plus adopting a child is going to come with a lot more need to be prepared and deal with unknown traumas.

The Government recognises that it is crucial to the success of an adoption placement that an adopter takes time off work to care for and bond with their child and that is why employed adoptive parents have broadly the same rights and protections as birth parents. Statutory Adoption Leave is a “day one” employment right - in line with Statutory Maternity Leave. Statutory Adoption Pay is enhanced in the first six weeks for eligible adoptive parents: qualifying adopters are entitled to 90% of their average earnings (with no upper limit) in this period – in line with Statutory Maternity Pay.

Ok so there IS a need for adoption leave then, so what was the previous paragraph talking about?

So far, the Government has focused on supporting employed adopters as they do not generally have the same level of flexibility over their work as self-employed adopters do.

Yes, that’s what us self-employed people tell ourselves, much more flexibility! But equally, no sick pay, no paid holiday and the majority of us work more hours than we ever did in the employed world!

However, since 2010 we have taken a number of other, significant steps to equalise the state benefits provided to the employed and self-employed, including the introduction of the new State Pension which improves outcomes for many self-employed people.

Ok so you DO see a need to treat people equally then? I’m so confused!

Whether you physically give birth, or you are prepared to parent a child who needs a stable home, you should get the same level of support. If self-employed people were able to access this support, I think that more would come forward to adopt. And getting more kids out of the system and into families can surely never be a bad thing?

If you could sign the petition that would be fantastic! Thanks in advance