News

A central register of approved adopters is desperately needed to speed up the process of matching children waiting to be adopted, a leading adoption group said this week.

British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering made the call in the wake of a Social Services Inspectorate report which questions social services departments' commitment to adoption and Quality Protects objectives.

The survey of all 150 social services departments in England last year shows that while almost 3,000 adoptive placements were made in the year ending March 1999, there were about 2,400 children - nearly 20 per cent of them black - for whom no adopters had been identified. Yet 1,297 adopters had been recruited - 10 per cent of them black - who had no child placed with them.

Felicity Collier, BAAF chief executive, said "It is vital that approved adopters are seen as a national resource rather, than as happens in too many cases, the 'property' of small local authorities that might not have the right children needing new families at a particular time."

Collier urged the government to introduce ring-fenced funding so that local authorities and voluntary adoption agencies can afford to recruit and support adopters even though they may have no children waiting locally to be placed. These adopters could then be placed on the national register.

The idea of a register, both national and local, is supported by the Association of Directors of Social Services. Rob Hutchinson, chairperson of the ADSS children and families committee, said: "We need to find a way of sharing the precious resources that potential adopters represent. We need to find new ways to share best practice between local authorities and ensure there is a top-level determination to improve services."

One-third of children for whom adoption was the plan had waited more than a year for a placement once the plan was decided, says the report. It estimates that 5,000 adopters are needed nationally, of whom 25 per cent need to be from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.

Although three-quarters of departments used targeted recruitment drives for specific groups, 15 departments could not remember when their last campaign was and eight had no recruitment exercise for a year or more. Half of the departments assessed prospective adopters with three months, but some took as long as a year. Less than half of departments had targeted timescales for achieving adoption.

In July 1999, of 6,915 children for whom adoption was planned, 1 per cent, roughly 70 children, had no allocated social worker. This "unacceptable" position compromised their chances of being adopted, says the report. Just under 400 of the children were from black and ethnic backgrounds and 678 were mixed race. The report calls for specific recruitment campaigns to address their over representation.

The SSI was appalled that many social services departments had no idea how many children had been in their care for more than six months. The future of about 5,000 children was still undecided after more than six months in care.

Nearly two-thirds of departments had a strategic plan for developing and providing adoption services but fewer than half of those plans could specify how many adopters needed to be recruited, and only 15 per cent could say how many black and minority ethnic adopters were needed. Inspectors outlined their concern that 60 per cent delegated responsibility for monitoring outcomes for children to fourth and fifth tier managers, indicating the lack of importance they attach to adoption.

Few had offered training in awareness of race equality, culture and religion in adoption. Departments were often reluctant to work with voluntary adoption agencies, with spot purchasing rather than contracting or joint strategic planning occurring most often.

Post adoption support was under developed both conceptually and practically.