Compulsory adoptions save municipalities millions - DF is now asking questions to the minister
Doubts have been raised as to whether the economy plays a role when municipalities choose to forcibly adopt children.
Lolland Municipality is responsible for more than half of the forced adoptions that the municipalities have sent to the National Board of Appeal at national level.
This year, the municipality has nominated seven children between zero and seven years for forced adoption, while at national level there are 13 settings.
Five forcibly adopted children can save the municipality four million kroner in 2022, shows a savings catalog from this summer, which DR Zealand has been given access to. The municipality saves the cost of a placement or institution.
This now causes the Danish People's Party's Karin Nødgaard, who is deputy chair of the Folketing's social, interior and children's committee, to ask a number of questions to Minister of Social Affairs Mai Mercado (K). It writes DR News.
It is first and foremost about the best interests of the child, and the economy comes second here
KASPER ROUG (S), CHAIRMAN OF THE SCHOOL AND CHILDREN'S COMMITTEE
The Minister must answer whether it is in accordance with the law if municipalities forcibly adopt children to save money - and what the Minister thinks about it.
- There may be a concern that some municipalities are thinking in economic terms, in relation to the fact that you can save some money by forcibly adopting a child, says Karin Nødgaard to TV ØST.
- I am very concerned that this can be done, and therefore I want to ask the Minister some questions. And there I have asked a number of questions, which I would very much like a clear answer to, in relation to what the government thinks about this, and that we are now actually seeing an increased number of options for forced adoptions.
DF: A forced adoption is final
What do you hope to get out of the answers?
- I am concerned about the development we can see. There may be municipalities that choose for forced reasons to forcibly adopt children, says Karin Nødgaard, who continues:
- I would like to state that there are children who grow up in homes where it is not very good to be. There are parents who have no parenting ability. But one just has to keep in mind that a forced adoption is completely definitive. The child is cut off from having contact with his biological origin at all.
- And then there's another thing I'm worried about. Even if the parents do not have parenting skills, there may well be a network that can play a positive role in the child's life and development, and this will also be cut off by forced adoption, says Karin Nødgaard.
The article continues below the feature.
Lolland: The economy comes second
Lolland Municipality has previously denied that the increasing number of cases of forced adoption is a form of austerity exercise.
- It is first and foremost about the best interests of the child, and the economy comes second here. These are cases where the parents typically suffer from severe mental illness, and adoption is an opportunity to give the children a good life. It is no longer, Kasper Roug (S), chairman of the school and children's committee, has previously said.
It is not only the Danish People's Party that warns against too many forced adoptions. Previously, Benny Andersen, chairman of the National Association of Social Pedagogy, has been out and warn against the trend.
- One must keep in mind that when it is a forced adoption, it is not something that is changed. Then it is for life that you deprive them of those opportunities, Benny Andersen said on 19 December to TV ØST.
- We know from placed children how much their father and mother mean, even if they can not find out to be father and mother, it means a lot that they can play a role in their lives, if at all possible. . And that is what deprives them of a forced adoption. Therefore, it must be in some very special cases, it sounded from Benny Andersen.