DfE makes £4.5m cash injection to speed up regional adoption agencies

The Government is to provide £4.5m in funding to help establish regional adoption agencies.

The Department for Education said the cash injection was part of plans – unveiled in the Queen’s Speech – to place all councils in such agencies by the end of this Parliament.

The first regional adoption agencies “will be up and running months earlier than planned”, it added.

According to the DfE, more than 5,000 children were found a permanent home last year – up 26% in 12 months.

“However, more than 3,000 children remain waiting to be matched with their new parents, with more than half having spent more 18 months in care despite their being adopters readily available,” it said.

The Department claimed that adoptions were currently happening “at too small and localised a scale”.

It also argued that some councils were reluctant to look outside their immediate area for the right family.

The DfE suggested that regional agencies would:

• give councils a greater pool of approved adopters with which to match vulnerable children successfully, first time;
• make vital support services more widely available to adoptive families as and when they need them;
• better target the recruitment of adopters.

Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson said: “Every single day a child spends waiting in care for their new family is a further delay to a life full of love and stability. This just isn’t good enough. Where adoption is proven to be in the best interest of the child, we have a moral mission to make sure they are matched quickly with parents who are right for them - regardless of where they live.

“The new funding announced today will help councils come together and access an ever growing pool of approved adopters - creating families quickly and successfully.”