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Just five per cent of the children put forward for possible adoption by the national adoption register ended up being successfully adopted, its first annual report has revealed, writes Derren Hayes.

The long-awaited report shows that while 600 children and prospective parents were linked together through the register in its first full year of operation, only 30 progressed through to adoption.

Since the register, which is run by Jewish charity Norwood for the department of health and Welsh Assembly, was set up in September 2001 with £633,000 of government funding, it has been criticised for not making enough matches.

The register currently has 2,300 children who have been identified as appropriate for adoption, and 2,200 prospective adopters placed on it. All local authority adoption agencies feed details of children and adopters into the register after six months.

Ruth Fasht, Norwood’s director, called its first 20 months – it had an eight month setting-up period – “successful” saying its role is to make links with agencies having the responsibility to turn those into matches.