The main argument of the social work establishment for keeping children in care rather than placing them for adoption is that the adoption breakdown rate is already high. That placing even more children for adoption, given their challenging background, will only make things worse as the placement would breakdown. Given the experience of being in […]
One reason social workers are often resistance to adoption is that they dislike the prospect of children from council estates being pleased with middle class households. Yet they also say that children being adopted should have their own bedroom. While the housing department says council tenants can't move to a bigger property until they have […]
The Shadow Children's Minister Catherine McKinnell said in a Westminster Hall debate on adoption: I am concerned that naming and shaming local authorities seriously risks painting too simplistic a picture of an incredibly complex issue. Have Ministers considered what impact the threat of tough action against those local authorities will have on the morale, recruitment […]
Ofsted has published their verdicts for Council's Children's Services Departments. It rates 28 councils (including Hammersmith and Fulham) as "excellent" in this area. Councils judged to be performing poorly are Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, Slough, Birmingham, Calderdale, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Cornwall, Kent, Peterborough, Salford, Sandwell, Torbay, West Sussex and Worcestershire. Of course there is the […]
Local councillors are "corporate parents" of their authority's "Looked After Children." So every councillor should take a look at the new performance tables to see how they are doing. Most of the media interest has been in the "Adoption 3" table that shows the percentage of children actually placed for adoption within 12 months of […]
Lots of coverage this morning on plans for greater transparency on how councils perform in placing children for adoption and their standards for the children that remain in care. The Times has an interview (£) with the Prime Minister on the subject. He says: “You do have to be careful. If you select one figure, […]
In an interview (£) for The Sunday Times the Government's adoption tsar Martin Narey accepts that legislation outlawing discrimination against transracial adoption may be needed – that guidance against delay may not be enough. He says: “Michael Gove [the education secretary] has issued fresh guidance to say that seeking an ethnic match should not delay […]
The Sunday Telegraph has more details on Government plans to boost the numbber of adoption. this follows the news that in the Coalition Government's first year the number of children in care actually rose and that only 60 babies were adopted. It also follow the pledge in the prime Minister's Party Conference speech to do […]
In David Cameron's Party Conference speech there wasn't much in the way of new policy announcements. However he did say: Today I can announce this: a new focus on the 65,000 children in care. Do you know how many children there are in care under the age of one? 3,660. And how many children under […]
The Times this morning reports that only 60 children under a year old were adopted in the year to March 2011. In total 3,050 children were placed for adoption – a fall of 5% on the previous year. Last year 64,410 children were in care, "Looked After Children." This year it is 65,520. Measured per […]
I am pleased that in an article (£) for The Times this morning the Labour MP Toby Perkins, the Shadow Minister for Children and Families, has backed the appointment of Martin Narey as the Government's adoption adviser with the brief to remove barriers to adoption. He recounts his personal experience: Some authorities are slow or […]
Not all News International journalists will have reason to feel very proud today but those at The Times are entitled to do so. The paper has published as a supplement (£) a report from Martin Narey, the former Chief Executive of Barnado's, making the case for more children to be placed for adoption and full […]
The Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham spoke in the House of Commons yesterday attacking my Counciil of Hammersmith and Fulham over our plans for Sure Start Children's Centres. He said: Then we heard the news that six would become hubs and 10 would remain as spokes. Only when we dig a little deeper do we find […]
The Times have launched a campaign (£) this week for more children in care to be placed for adoption. In a leader (£) The Times says: Only one in 15 children aged more than 5 is now being taken out of care. This is an monstrous blight on young lives. And it is one that […]
After the post about Lancashire yesterday it has been pointed out that Essex are also considering closing some of their children's homes (unless charities wish to buy them.) 11% of the 60,000 children in care are in children's home. The state makes for a bad parent. But the outcomes are especially dire with this institutionalised arrangement […]