Councils have urged the government to speed up reforms to the adoption system, warning that ‘ridiculous’ bureaucracy is hampering attempts to recruit more parents.
Prime Minister David Cameron pledged last March to tear down the barriers and make it easier for people to adopt. But the changes are ‘taking too long’ to implement, the Local Government Association said today.The association, working with the Society Of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers and the Association of Directors of Children's Services, has proposed a package of measures to increase the number of adoptive parents.
These include councils working together to make it easier to adopt children in any part of the country, not just a specific local authority area. Financial barriers that deter councils from finding more potential adopters than they need should also be tackled. To enable adoptions across councils, authorities should be able to compensate each other fully for the costs of recruitment.
However, David Simmonds, chair of the LGA's children and young people board, said the slow pace of change in Whitehall since Cameron's speech last year was getting in the way of reform.
He said councils were still waiting for any ‘tangible difference’ to be made to the adoption process, ahead of the expected launch of the national gateway this spring.
He added: ‘Local authorities acknowledge that there is variation in performance across the country and recognise that at times the system has been risk-averse but often this is to comply with the requirements of the legal system.
‘Councils also have to wade through reams of unnecessary paperwork to fulfil government requirements before social workers can approve people to adopt, which not only delays the process but can also put people off.’
He called for action to boost the pool of adopters. ‘The biggest barrier to finding homes for children is that sadly there is still an acute shortage of potential adopters. Councils have already waited a year for government to launch its national adoption gateway, which is the principal vehicle for tackling the shortage of adopters.
