Adoption falling?

The Department of Education announced today that the levels of adoption in this country are dropping by about 5%. They say that their survey tells them only 60 children had adoptions completed by their first birthday compared with 70 last year.

The government has recently appointed a 'Tsar' to look at the whole adoption system to see where the bureaucracy could be reduced and the process of adoption speeded up.

The research concludes that the average length of time children wait to be adopted is 2 years 7 months and the average age of adoption is 3 years 10 months. Barnardos have commented that they find this to be a tragedy for children. They blame two things. Firstly there are too many children in the care system and cases take too long and secondly being assessed as an adopter can also take too long.

If you are thinking of adopting early legal advice is vital. Please contact our team on 0800 923 0400 or email us familylawteam@michelmores.com