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More adoption funding follows government’s adoption package (27 December 2013)

Date: 27/12/2013
Duncan Lewis, Family Solicitors, More adoption funding follows government’s adoption package

The government has announced a funding boost for councils across England and Wales to help further streamline the adoption process.

The government gave councils £150 million in 2013 to help fast-track adoption – and in 2014 councils will receive a further £50 million.

The adoption process has been overhauled in the last year, with a new online mapping system published in January 2013, showing the regions where children are waiting to be adopted across England and Wales.

As a result of innovations to the adoption process, the Department for Education (DfE) says there has been a 34% increase in the number of those looking to adopt children – and a 15% rise in the number of adoptions which took place.

Just over 4,000 people are waiting to adopt and nearly 7,000 children are waiting for new homes across England and Wales. The government’s online adoption map shows how many children each local authority has in care waiting for adoptive parents.

More adoption reforms are expected in the Children and Families Bill, which becomes law in 2014. The adoption system reforms will be administered by the government and local authorities through an Adoption Leadership Board.

The British Association of Adoption and Fostering said that 2014 would be “a critical year in the delivery of the adoption reform agenda”. The association’s spokesman said the announcement “should play an important part in ensuring the resources will be available”.

The Local Government Association – which represents local authorities – said, however, that the funding announcement represented a “net reduction in funding for local authorities”. Councillor David Simmonds said that the additional funding was not “new” money for adoption services and added that funding shortages might have an impact on funding services for vulnerable children – including identifying children who might benefit from adoption at an early stage.

“Councils have been working hard to recruit more adoptive mums and dads – and are doing everything in their power to ensure that vulnerable children get the best start in life,” Cllr Simmonds told BBC News.

In December 2012, more support was introduced for prospective adoptive parents – including playing a more active role in the process, which the online mapping of local authority adoption services is part of.

The Children’s Minister Edward Timpson said that, although 25,000 people come forward to adopt every year, many of these are put off by the process and delays in finding a child to adopt, as well as being approved as an adoptive parent.

In April 2013, the government piloted a number of schemes to help people adopt – including personal support budgets which could be used for parenting classes. The package of support introduced in 2013 also includes adoption activity days when parents seeking to adopt and children waiting to be adopted can meet each other.

Mr Timpson said:

“This is a package of support to all those who are looking to adopt, to make sure that if they do want to pursue an interest in adopting, they will be welcomed with open arms.”

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