National Adoption Service for Wales aims to speed up process

The new service aims to end delays in the adoption process

A new all-Wales service to speed up the adoption process for children in care has been launched.

The National Adoption Service for Wales (NAS) also aims to increase the pool of people willing to adopt.

There are only 58 adopters currently approved on the Wales register, but 139 children are waiting.

The average waiting time in Wales for adoption is nine months but the ambition is to bring it down to six months.

The service, announced earlier this year, will bring together councils and agencies to work in five regional clusters.

The hope is that by working more closely together councils with longer waiting times will be helped to reduce those.

Common questions about adoption:

Am I too old to adopt? There is no upper age limit but you must be over 21 and fit and healthy enough to support a child into adulthood.

Can I adopt if I am overweight? Yes - your weight is only a problem if it affects your health or ability to care for a child.

How long will the assessment process take? It should take no longer than six months but individual circumstances can affect the time it takes.

Can I adopt if I am a single parent? Yes.

Do my finances and employment status matter? Financial circumstances and employment status will be considered. You can adopt if you have a low income, are unemployed or receiving benefits.

Can I adopt if I smoke? If you hope to adopt a child under five, you will need to have given up smoking.

Source: NAS - more questions answered here.

A new Wales Adoption Register, operated by the British Association of Adoption and Fostering Cymru, will also be looking to match children and potential parents more quickly.

Suzanne Griffiths, director of NAS Wales, said there was a "huge discrepancy" in the time the process takes at different councils but an average of six months should be the longest most adoptive parents have to wait.

The average is currently nine months.

Currently there are 139 children waiting to be adopted. There are 58 would-be adoptive parents on the register, and 36 of these have been matched with children.

And none of these are willing to take a sibling group of more than two children - although around half of those currently on the register have a brother or sister.

'Robbing them'

There is also a problem getting older children to be adopted, with 72% on the current register over the age of two.

Ms Griffiths added: "One of the urgent priorities is we simply need more adoptive parents coming forward."

"There's a natural caution for any parent about taking on too much too soon. Most people have one child at a time but although it's a bigger challenge with two - support is available and another important area for us is to ensure that the support is consistent around Wales."

Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford said: "Delays in the adoption system have the potential to cause lasting harm to children, robbing them of their best chance of the love and stability of a new family."

He said he expected to see an "upward trend" in standards and performance.

There has already been concern expressed that Wales will have no equivalent to the £19m support fund which will be available for adoptive parents in England from next year - prompting fears potential adopters may choose to go over the border.