We have launched a new website and this page has been archived.Find out more

[Skip to Content]

01 November 2011

Adoption

Adoption Week runs from the end of October until 6 November and this week, the government published a league table on the rate at which children are placed into adoption.

The league tables show which councils are not meeting targets to place children into adoption within the required 12 months.

Most adoption cases take an average of two years and seven months according to the BBC News website. Last year, out of 3,600 children in care in the UK, only 60 were placed in homes.

The prime minister David Cameron said: "This is clearly not good enough…we will publish data on how every local authority is performing to ensure they are working quickly enough to provide the safe and secure family environment every child deserves."

Although Hackney Council was named as the worst local authority it also had the best rate of successful adoption placements. Alan Wood, director of children's services, said: "We have got one of the best records of stability of placement; hardly any, if any, of our placements ever break down."

Krish Kandiah, executive director at the Evangelical Alliance, who fosters and adopts, and is working to highlight the importance of the Church taking on the issue of adoption, said: "There are many factors that lead to a looked after child remaining within the care system longer than is ideal. Each day that passes makes it harder to find an adoptive family…more traumatic for our other children to come to terms with her moving on…each day she is becoming more aware of what will be a huge transition in her life.

He added: "As Christians we believe that every child whatever their circumstances deserves the very best care, and therefore there are already many Christians involved in children's services.

"Evangelical Christians have often shown considerable commitment to seeking the welfare of the vulnerable and the poor in society and the Evangelical Alliance applaud and encourages all Christians who are foster carers and adoptive parents in their vital and life-transforming roles."

Breakfast TV show Daybreak ran its reports throughout the morning on Tuesday on adoption.

 The Telegraph ran a comment piece pointing out that while the government's league tables were an attempt to make adoption easier following a report by charity Barnardo's cases such as Baby P also caution against rushing processes.

The Daily Mail ran tables from the government's report on the best and worst local authorities.

Former X-Factor contestant, Ashley John Baptiste gave an interview with epolitix.com talking about his faith and his experiences of being in care.

  • Listen out for Krish interview with Premier Radio  at the end of this week. The station's Women to Women show is also discussing the issue on their slot.