Reformed register boosts placements

More children are being placed by the national adoption
register, including its first group of four siblings.

Baaf Adoption and Fostering, which has run the register since
December, has matched 33 children with adoptive families in the
past three months. This compares with 35 in the first six months
after it
took over from the Norwood adoption agency.

Norwood made just 132 matches in more than three years. However,
the register, which deals mainly with hard-to-place children, was
reformed when Baaf took over.

It no longer holds details of all adopters and all children with
a care plan of adoption in England and Wales, which allows it to
focus on cases where a local or regional placement is not being
pursued.

Baaf said it had also cut bureaucracy by allowing social workers
to electronically submit adoption forms to the register rather than
re-enter information they had collected.

The four siblings ranged in age from five and a half to 11. Andy
Stott, manager of the register, said several groups of three
siblings and many pairs had also been matched.

The government did not set targets for the number of matches
when Baaf took over because of changes to the way it operated, but
this could be reviewed.