In her role as Campaigns Officer, Susan deals with complaints against adoption agencies and also represents AdoptionIreland on a government advisory group along with Adoption Loss, Adoptive Parents Association of Ireland (APAI), 2 social workers from 2 separate health boards; a director of a Private adoption agency; an official from the Department of Health; a social worker from the Adoption Board; the Registrar from the Adoption Board; the Director of Adminstration from the Adoption Board; the CEO of the Adoption Board. This group, based at the Adoption Board, has met monthly for the last year to plan the launch of the Voluntary Contact Preference Register (VCPR).

To AdoptionIreland's (and Adoption Loss') ongoing frustration, any attempts to raise issues of current malpractice are not addressed at these meetings although it seems entirely counterintuitive to commence planning a new service when so-called existing services are so maligned. Instead, the AdoptionIreland and NPNI committees are forced to make separate representations to the Adoption Board Executive but this week their policy on complaints has changed.

Previously, we have made mainly general representations on behalf of individuals to the Adoption Board (as most people don't want to "rock the boat"). Whilst this has carried the benefit of allowing people to keep a safe distance from a complaint, the downside is that such complaints are not taken seriously and are regarded as heresay and they are effectively ignored. The Adoption Baord have this week told us that they now require more specific complaints in order to be able to investigate them.

We realise all too well how daunting this may seem to people but we agree that rogue agencies must be rooted out and dealt with.

We therefore propose the following policy:

1. If you feel you have not been treated inappropriately by an agency, in the first instance, you must complain in writing to the agency and ask them to remedy the situation — DO NOT COMPLAIN OVER THE PHONE — DO NOT ACCEPT AN EXPLANATION OVER THE PHONE;
2. If you remain unsatisfied with the result, complain to AdoptionIreland (email complaints@adoptionireland.com) so we can help in formulating the official complaint to the Adoption Board.
3. Finally, we will send a batch of complaints concerning a single agency on your behalf to the Adoption Board e.g. in November we could for example bulk up the complaints against RGAS; in December we could highlight Bessboro etc, etc. By taking this approach, your complaint will be sent as part of a group but we are also happy to send off single complaints at any time. Please note that your complaint would generally include your name and address and the names of specific individuals you wished to complain against. However if we can demonstrate the need for anonymity to the Adoption Board, we will do so. DO NOT COMPLAIN OVER THE PHONE TO THE ADOPTION BOARD — DO NOT ACCEPT AN EXPLANATION FROM THEM OVER THE PHONE;

• It is NOT acceptable for an agency not to acknowledge your requests for information/meetings
• It is NOT acceptable for an agency not to explain why you need an appointment
• It is NOT acceptable for an agency not to tell you when you can expect an appointment
• It is NOT acceptable for an agency to make a blanket refusal to release information to you
• It is NOT acceptable for an agency to tell you that they cannot find your file
• It is NOT acceptable for an agency to refuse to correspond with you in writing
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency staff member to provide you with advice without first explaining their professional experience or qualifications to you within their first correspondence/first meeting (i.e. you need to know if you're talking to an administrator/ counsellor/ social worker/ owner etc.
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency staff member to "counsel" you unless they have relevant experience or qualification (e.g. we understand that the Adoption Board have previously used probation workers on their social worker team and they have not refuted this)
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to counsel you against getting information if that is what you wish
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to counsel you against tracing for a natural family member if that is what you wish
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to counsel you against meeting a member of your natural family if that is what you wish UNLESS they could provide evidence that this would cause you serious harm
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to contact members of your natural family without ascertaining your views in advance
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to contact members of your natural family if you have expressly asked them not to do so
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to contact members of your adoptive family without ascertaining your views in advance
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to contact members of your adoptive family if you have expressly asked them not to do so
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to counsel members of your natural family against meeting you UNLESS they have explained their reasons for doing so to you in advance
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to refer to your case for the training of external parties
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to allow its staff to gossip about your case
• It is ethically unacceptable for an agency to allow its staff to approach you unannounced in public places to discuss your case