New adoption legislation could finally be on the agenda after health minister John Hutton recognised its necessity at an adoption summit at Downing Street earlier this week.

The top-level meeting drew together representatives from the Association of Directors of Social Services, British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering, local authorities, Adoption UK, and the Family Rights Group.

A Cabinet Office review team - chaired by Hutton and called by Prime Minister Tony Blair straight after the Waterhouse report in February - outlined the government's blueprint for the future of adoption services. The review team is expected to complete its report in the next few weeks.

Hutton confirmed that BAAF's call for a national register was under active consideration by the government Long-awaited discussions centred on the removal of restrictions on would-be adopters and a national recruitment campaign; the importance of planning and reviews for all looked after children; ensuring that adoption is discussed as an option for children in care for six months; post-adoption support; and allowances.

BAAF chief executive Felicity Collier said: "There was a general acceptance that greater consistency is needed across the country. There is concern about adopters who feel they need to meet different criteria in different parts of the country."

BAAF was recently awarded the contract to establish national adoption standards, which Hutton believes are part of the solution. "If we were to raise the performance of all authorities to the level being set by the top 25 per cent of authorities that would give us almost another 1,000 children a year being taken out of care," the health minister added.

Afterwards, Collier told Hutton that a minimum of £50 million was needed to make a difference.

ADSS president Jo Williams said the summit was constructive and positive: "There was a real consensus that people wanted to make the system work better for children, particularly around post adoption support and speeding up the way in which we deal with prospective adopters."

Meanwhile, local authorities have told the government to sort out the social work recruitment crisis before making demands that more adoptions must take place.

A Local Government Association task group last week issued an action plan, warning that hasty action could result in more placement breakdowns.

The task group included representatives from the Department of Health, ADSS, NCH Action for Children, the National Foster Care Association, and the department of social work studies at the University of Southampton.

The LGA is to encourage the development of adoption consortia to widen the net for potential matches, but also keep children within a familiar area close to family and friends.

Local authorities will also be encouraged to use innovative approaches such as the internet to help match children with adoptive parents. The task group intends to introduce a best practice leaflet based on the performance of the most successful authorities.

Task group member Collier said the recruitment problem had to be addressed, but adoption also had to be given greater priority in many authorities than at present.

"Children's lives can't fail and we can't wait to make improvements," she said. "We can't short-circuit the checks, but have to give sufficient priority to it."

June Thoburn, dean of the school of social work at the University of East Anglia, said switching staff to adoptions from fostering could create problems. "We need more social workers, especially in London, but it isn't an answer to take them off fostering." She said both functions needed to be well resourced because some children needed to be fostered before being adopted.