The new regional adoption agencies – which are groups of councils working together to match children quickly with their adoptive parents – are to receive new government funding worth £4.5 million. This money will allow these agencies to be up and running earlier than originally planned.

Whilst the Department of Education (DfE) states that there was a record increase by 26% in 2014 of children finding permanent homes (more than 5,000), it was also stated that there were 3,000 children who remained to be matched with their adoptive parents even though the latter were available to receive them.

According to the DfE, adoption is happening at too small and localised a scale. A recent study showed that in around 1 in 3 cases, children were left waiting longer than necessary due to council’s reluctance to look outside their immediate area for the right family.

By encouraging councils to work together, the potential matches for a child would increase significantly, giving children a far better chance of quickly finding a permanent family.

For the whole article please visit Family Law Week website.