Adoption system is too slow and drives couples to adopt from abroad, says government

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

The government is to overhaul the assessment process for people looking to adopt amid concerns that the current system is too slow, unnecessarily bureaucratic and not fit for purpose.

Currently it can take more than a year for a potential candidate to be given approval, leaving thousands of children in care waiting months or even years for a family.

Children's minister Tim Loughton has asked experts to draw up a new system to recruit and assess individuals as adoptive parents.

Government adviser Martin Narey, former chief executive of the charity Barnardo's, welcomed reform to a process which has driven couples to adopt from overseas.

"The more I have visited local authorities and voluntary adoption agencies over the last few months, and on ministers' behalf, the more exercised I have become about a parental assessment process which is not fit for purpose," he said.

"It meanders along, it is failing to keep pace with the number of children cleared for adoption, and it drives many outstanding couples to adopt from abroad.

"I am simply delighted that the children's minister has decided to set it aside and start again. This is a significant moment. We made the system work more quickly in the past and have increased adoptions, only for numbers to fall back again. But this will, I believe, ensure a permanent increase."

According to the latest government statistics, children wait an average of two years and seven months before being adopted, while this process takes more than three years in a quarter of cases.

Potentially suitable adoptive parents are often turned away because they may not be the right ethnic match, are overweight or may have smoked.

"The assessment process for people wanting to adopt is painfully slow, repetitive and ineffective," Loughton said.

"Dedicated social workers are spending too long filling out forms instead of making sound, common sense judgments about someone's suitability to adopt.

"Children are waiting too long because we are losing many potentially suitable adoptive parents to a system which doesn't welcome them and often turns them away at the door. I am determined to change this."

The government aims to bring in a quicker and more efficient process to match adoptive parents with children.

"We cannot afford to sit back and lose potential adoptive parents when there are children who could benefit hugely from the loving home they can provide," Loughton added.

The expert panel is made up of representatives from across the adoption sector, including the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies, British Association of Adoption and Fostering, Adoption UK, and the Association of Directors of Children's Services.

Working with Narey, it will provide recommendations in March for a new system to be introduced later in the year.

It has been asked to consider arrangements for an improved recruitment process for adopters; ensure those who come forward are not lost in the system; streamline the training and assessment process; remove bureaucracy; provide timescales for training and assessing suitable adopters and design a new national assessment form based on a robust analysis of an individual's capacity to care for a child in need of adoption.

The group is also expected to suggest whether new monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are required to measure the success of the reformed system.

The announcement forms part of a wider programme of reform to the adoption and care system. Further proposals are expected to be set out in the new year.