David Cameron has announced measures to increase the number of children adopted and speed up the process. The Prime Minister has unveiled a renewed drive to increase adoptions and cut unacceptable delays. In a press release published on 2nd November 2015, David Cameron said:

“It is a tragedy that there are still too many children waiting to be placed with a loving family – we have made real progress but it remains a problem.

As Prime Minister I want to make sure that we do everything we can so children are placed in a loving home as soon as possible, giving them the best chance for a happy and fulfilled life.”

Reform

The reforms outlined include:

Placing children with their adoptive family sooner

The number of councils currently using early placement via foster to adopt processes varies across the country. Councils will now have to reveal how many children they place with adoptive families before the full process is complete. This measure is being introduced to enable children to move in with their prospective new family sooner, without having to wait for the full process to complete.

Special Guardianship Orders

The regulations will be changed. Changes will address the need for more thorough assessments that help to make sure children are in the right home, where there are strong bonds, and relatives they are placed with can look after the child right up until they are 18.

Changes to adoption law

The government is actively considering changes to adoption law, to make sure decisions are being made in the child’s best interests.

Regional Adoption Agencies
Under the Education and Adoption Bill, new Regional Adoption Agencies will make it easier to match adopters with children needing homes. 140 out of 150 councils have applied to merge and streamline their services.

New legislative powers will also allow government to intervene to ensure that all councils have plans to join regional agencies by 2017 – so that the whole system is in regional agencies by 2020.

Read more: Press release