Date: 5 March 2021
2020 marked 40 years since BAAF was formally launched in 1980, and five years in its current incarnation, CoramBAAF. Since its inception, it has become a cornerstone of the family placement landscape. Our publications, forms, meetings and training are at the heart of family placement policy and practice, and we are a leading voice for the sector.
We are proud of our history, including successful campaigns to introduce new features within family placement, such as appropriate legislation, national adoption standards, early care planning, monitoring of permanency plans, a national adoption register, mandatory assessment for adoption support, parental leave for adoptive parents, and the acceptance of unmarried and same-sex adopters. We have also led anti-racist initiatives – an area that we will address with new vigour in the coming months and years.
2020 was also a year in which we faced huge challenges. The impact of the pandemic on children, young people and their families has been huge, with some of the effects yet to be uncovered, and will be with us for many years to come.
Since I joined the organisation at the beginning of 2021, I have been hugely impressed by the insight, expertise, commitment and resilience of the workforce – and how it continues to meet the needs of children and families under these extremely challenging circumstances. And we have done our best to be alongside our members, making sure practitioners had the information, advice and resources they needed to support children and families.
Thank you for your continued membership of CoramBAAF, and for being part of the UK-wide network of agencies and individuals with a shared aim – working together to secure the best outcomes for children in care.
We are grateful for all your contributions, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and reflections – they enable us to do our very best for you and the children we all work for. I look forward to meeting many of you over the coming months but if you would like to speak to me, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at ellen.broome@corambaaf.org.uk.
Ellen Broomé, Managing Director, CoramBAAF