New Research Evidence on Looked After Children & Adoption From Barnardos

Photograph by MegaBu7

Baranrdos has published a new, free to download report: What Works in Achieving Adoption for Looked After Children: An Overview of Evidence for the Coram/Barnardo's Partnership

The review was commissioned by Barnardo's and Coram to support their partnership initiative which provides consultancy and support to local authorities with the aim of increasing the number of children adopted from care and reducing delays in making and implementing decisions about adoptive placements. 

The work forms part of the Department for Education 'Pathways to Permanency project'.

Social Workers At 'Rock Bottom' Over Issue Of Race & Adoption

A report in today's The Guardian newspaper says that social worker's morale is at 'rock bottom' by cuts, targets and ministers making the issue of race and adoption a "political football", according to the biggest professional association.

Nushra Mansuri, of the British Association of Social Workers, is expected to criticise the education secretary Michael Gove, who accused social workers of condemning black and Asian children to a life in care rather than see them adopted by white couples.

"Leftwing prescriptions are denying children the love they need," Gove said in February. "This misguided nonsense punishes those who most need our help." The coalition later amended practice guidelines to speed up the adoption process and emphasise the determination of ministers to see more trans-racial adoptions.

"We are angry being misrepresented in this way," said Mansuri, who speaks for 14,000 social workers. "It is easy to talk about children in care who need to be with loving families and we are concerned about that. But we also know that only a minority can be adopted."

Mansuri, who will address the Lords select committee on adoption legislation led by Lady Butler-Sloss, said ministers increased their popularity by highlighting difficulties in adoption but did not take responsibility: "They set the policies and release the resources. What Gove said is an example of adoption as a political football, of the misrepresentation and distortion that gets people's backs up."

You can read the full story in The Guardian here.

Number Of Children In Care In England Rises

The number of children in the care system in England is rising, official figures show. 

Department for Education data shows the number of children in local authority care rose by 2% from 65,520 last year to 67,050 this year.The figures reveal 28,220 children were taken into care during the year ending 31 March 2012, an increase of 3% from the previous year's figure of 27,500. The data also shows more youngsters were adopted, with 3,450 given a home.

Most affected are 10 to 15-year-olds, with 24,150 currently in care. The main reason for children living apart from their parents is to protect them from abuse or neglect, with 41,790 of those currently in care falling in this category.

Family dysfunction was the next most common reason given for being taken into care, with 9,530 children falling into this category. After this, "family in acute stress" affected 6,000 youngsters. And a total of 3,490 children had absent parents.

The number of babies less than a year old taken into care has also risen, from 3,680 last year to 4,190 this year. The official figures show there has been a steady rise in children being taken into care since 2008, from 59,380 to 67,050 in 2012 - 7,670 more children in total.

The death after months of abuse of Peter Connelly, in north London in 2007, is thought to have contributed to the increase. Social workers in the "Baby P" case were criticised for not removing the 17-month-old from his home sooner, prompting a mood of caution in the profession.

The figures also show that 3,450 looked after children were adopted during the year ending 31 March 2012.  You can read more on the BBC News website here.

Should Adoptive Siblings Be Separated For Their Own Benefit?

Brothers and sisters facing adoption should in some cases be split up for their own benefit, the government's adoption adviser has said.

Martin Narey said the presumption that siblings are kept together can sometimes "disadvantage children". There are too few adopters willing to take brothers and sisters together, he said.


He also warned that keeping siblings together may not always be in the interests of individual children. Current legal guidance to local authorities says siblings should be placed for adoption together unless there was good reason for them not to be.

Mr Narey said the law should be changed, so that "the case for placing siblings together should be considered on the needs of each individual child."

Mr Narey gave several examples of the negative consequences of keeping children from dysfunctional families together.

You can read more about this story on the BBC News website here.

PM Unveils 'Foster To Adopt' Plan



Photograph by o5com

 Prime Minister, David Cameron has said that new-born babies being taken into care should be fostered by people who want to adopt them.


Mr Cameron says the law in England will be changed to encourage more councils to do this - so more babies can find a loving home earlier.

He says it is "shocking" that so many babies taken in to care at one month wait 15 months to be adopted. The government has pledged to simplify and speed up the adoption process.

It wants babies to be placed with prospective adoptive parents before the courts have decided to remove them permanently from their natural parents. In some cases, there might be disappointment for those trying to adopt, because the courts might eventually decide to return the child to its natural parents.


Most often, children are moved from foster carers to adoptive parents once the courts have decided that the child should be adopted - a process that often takes more than a year.
 
You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18724999

The Government's Progress On Reforming The Care System

Tim Loughton, the Children's Minister spoke to social workers at the Community Care Live conference about the Government's progress in reforming child protection, fostering, adoption, the care system and the social work profession.

Mr Loughton's speech is available to read here:
http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/speeches/a00209139/community-care-live

Adoption Scorecards Show The Extent Of Delays Across England

Hundreds of children are forced to wait an average of 20 months from entering care to moving in with their adoptive parents according to official figures.


You can read the full press release plus links to related resources here on the Department for Education's website: http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00208881/adoption-scorecards-show-the-serious-extent-of-delays-across-england

Court Delays Keep Children Waiting For Adoption

A new report published by Ofsted found that the most significant cause of delay for children needing adoption is the length of time it takes for cases to be completed in court. The average time taken to complete care proceedings in the cases inspectors examined was almost 14 months.

The report also found that although there were some delays caused by issues such as a lack of suitable adopters or weak planning, these were generally not as significant as those caused earlier by delays in initiating and concluding care proceedings.

The Right on time report explores the many critical points that can cause delay in a complex adoption system and some of the ways in which local authorities and their partners are working to overcome those barriers. The report surveyed nine local authorities, tracking 53 adoption cases in detail, and a further 36 cases were randomly sampled. Inspectors also spoke to 23 approved adopters.

Read the report by clicking on the link below:
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/news/court-delays-keep-children-waiting-for-adoption-0

Government Announces Measures To Speed Up Adoptions

Prime Minister David Cameron is setting out proposals to speed up the adoption process in England, ahead of the launch of the government's "Adoption Action Plan" next week.

Local authorities will be told not to delay adoptions "in a search for the perfect match".

The latest government figures suggest there are 6,770 children who have been identified for adoption but have not been adopted.

You can read more about the planned proposals here in BBC News' Education and Family section.

Website of the Week: Families from the DfE

The Department for Education website has a section entitled "Families". It contains family policy and information about services to support families. Topics covered include:

• Adoption
• Special guardianship
• Children in care
• Child poverty
• Families with multiple problems
• Legislation
  

Information on the parenting classes trial for parents of children aged 0-5 has also been updated.
http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/families

Adoption & Fostering

Ministers are drawing up guidance for local authorities and adoption agencies that say that race and cultural background should not be a barrier to adoption. In an interview with The Times, Children's Minister, Tim Loughton said that too many children languished in care because social workers held out for the "perfect match" rather than deciding whether the would-be adopters would provide a good home. Loughton said there was "no reason at all" why white couples should not adopt black, Asian or mixed-heritage children. Read the article in full via the NewsBank Newspapers UK database.
Meanwhile, new research from the British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) has found that misconceptions about the adoption process are putting many people off trying to adopt. The study found that people wrongly believe that older people, those with criminal records, single men, smokers and non-swimmers would be excluded from adopting. Read the press release here: New research reveals "alarming misconceptions" about modern adoption, says BAAF.