Government to overhaul Adoption system

Following the publication of ‘Adoption League Tables’ ranking local authorities as to how quickly children are placed for adoption, the Government has announced a widespread review of the adoption system. The aim is to ensure that children are placed with families quicker by making the system more efficient less onerous for hopeful parents. This is backed by a campaign to encourage adopters and foster carers to volunteer. The Family Justice System (courts and Cafcass officers) will also be subject to closer scrutiny and new procedures are likely to be proposed later this week as part of the Norgrave review. All of these measures are designed to ‘speed up’ a system which, last year, resulted in only 60 of the 3600 babies (under 1 year) available for adoption being placed with families.