Adoptions in free fall

 

Suesspiciousminds addresses recent newspaper articles which lament the fact that adoption rates have fallen in recent times and points to certain court rulings where the judgements have been critical of local authorities who prioritise adoption over alternative arrangements.

"What might have changed is that it is no longer enough to just assert that an alternative is `unsuitable`, but you have to evidence it."

The post provides a very clear summary of recent cases which may be affecting the willingness of local authorities to pursue adoptions as enthusiastically as they once did.

But with pressure on budgets how long will this trend last ?

See http://suesspiciousminds.com/2015/05/15/adoption-rates-in-freefall/

Not long it seems, and there are contradictory messages about adoption trends.

New plans to speed up adoption rates are going to be included in the Queen's Speech, the Department for Education has announced. 

Under the proposals, local authorities will be forced to merge their services, allowing children to be matched with new families sooner.

The government has claimed adoption is "happening at too small and localised a scale". There are more than 3,000 children waiting to be matched at present ? and the majority of them have spent more than 18 months in care.

Edward Timpson, children and families minister, has said the current system "isn't good enough"...

More than 5,000 children were found a permanent home last year, according to the DfE ? a record increase of 26% over 12 months.

http://www.lbc.co.uk/plans-to-speed-up-adoptions-announced-110150