National Adoption Strategy: £48m to improve services in England

A new £48m National Adoption Strategy seeks to improve adoption services and help place more children with families as it launches in England.

Thousands of families will benefit from better support when adopting children - ending a postcode lottery that many face, the government said.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: "There is no substitute for a loving, permanent family."

Adoption support groups have welcomed the new approach.

Charity Adoption UK said there were nearly 3,000 children waiting to be adopted in England - the average wait is now 15 months from the point they are taken into care.

But older children, siblings, those with special educational needs and those from ethnic minority groups can face difficulty finding a place.

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The new strategy is an attempt to tackle this, with clarification for local authorities that people looking to adopt should never be deterred from doing so because they are worried about their own background.

Instead, councils will be urged to prioritise an adopters' ability to provide a stable environment for a young person to grow up in, the government said.

It will also provide more training for front-line staff and support the work of over 30 regional adoption agencies.

Alison Woodhead, Adoption UK's director of public affairs and an adoptive parent herself, welcomed the fact the strategy marked a shift from placing children with families to "supporting those families over the long term".

It is an "important moment" for adopters - but the concern is how to hold adoption agencies to account "for making these big shifts" without new legislation in place.

'All walks of life'

The strategy is funded by £48m for 2021-22, adding to an investment of more than £200m for adoptive families since 2015 - including post-adoption support, therapy and activities.

Vicky Ford, children's minister, said it was crucial to make sure there was support for families "not only when the children are young but through their teenage life and into adulthood".

The new funding will make sure the level of support is "equaled out across the country", she added.

She also said that children from certain ethnic minorities can wait longer to be adopted. The government wants to "break down some of those barriers from the past", which has led to people thinking they can only adopt children of the same ethnic background as them.

The minister said they want to challenge other misconceptions, adding that you do not have to be in a couple to adopt, or own your own home, for example.

"We are committed to improving adoption services, as well as breaking down barriers so that parents from all walks of life can adopt and to ensure they are not deterred from adopting simply because of their background," Mr Williamson added.

"We have taken steps to ensure these children and young people can be matched with the families that are right for them, but we know there is more to do and this strategy sets out our vision for radically improving systems so that we can be confident that every adoptive family in England is receiving the same high quality service no matter where they live."

Lucy Peake, the chief executive of the Kinship care charity, said the funding would "mean that many more kinship carers will be able to access advice and peer support when they need it, helping them provide stable and loving care for vulnerable children".

Cathy Ashley, of Family Rights Group, said the charity's advice line "received more calls than at any time in its history" last year, with new funding allowing it to advise 1,300 more callers a year about their rights and options.