News@www.adoption-net.co.uk
This story published December 22, 2000

White Paper - at a glance

Adoption - A New Approach proposes the biggest overhaul of adoption law in 25 years, aiming to speed up the system and place more children in care with families

The main elements are:

  • A £66.5m fund to improve council adoption systems and support children with their adoptive families
  • A new national target to increase the number of adoptions by 40 per cent by 2004/5 with an ultimate goal of a 50 per cent
  • An Adoption Register will be set up by next July linking children in care in England and Wales with potential families if local placements cannot be found or the child needs to move from the area
  • A new independent review panel for adopters whose applications are refused by an agency plans
  • New National Adoption Standards will set out what children and parents can expect from councils and adoption agencies
  • Children will need to have a care plan drawn up within six months of coming into care and be placed with a family within the year if adoption is part of the plan
  • Targets to ensure that long term foster parents wanting to adopt the children in their care will only have to wait three months for the process to be completed.
  • An Adoption and Permanence Task Force will be set up to tackle poor performance and spread best practice among councils
  • Adoptive families will have the right to an assessment for support once their child starts to live with them - councils will be required to provide a full package of support services including, where appropriate, financial help
  • Adoptive families will have the right to paid adoption leave at a flat rate for 18 weeks
  • The new Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service will be launched by April 2001 to make children's court services more flexible and to put the focus on youngsters
  • A new legal option called 'special guardianship' will be introduced - it would be used where the court decides it is in the child's best interest not to be adopted. It could include older children who do not wish to be legally separated from their birth parents but cannot live with them or some ethnic minorities children whose religion or culture is against the concept of adoption.
  • A new adoption website has been launched by the Department of Health - www.doh.gov.uk/adoption.

    The White paper in full (Adobe Acrobat reader required)

  • Do you have a story for Adoption-net? If so, please contact us.

    Top

    Back to this week's news


    © adoption-net.co.uk 2000
    This site has been designed with few graphics to make it quick to load and simple to navigate.