Newcastle social services has been praised for the strength of its adoption services.

A report by the Social Services Inspectorate and the Audit Commission highlighted the council's adoption services as one of its strengths in its recent Joint Review report.

But more needs to be done to improve its foster care services, said the Government watchdogs.

The number of children referred for adoption in the city has doubled in the last three years. In the year ending September 2000, 63 new children had been referred compared with 32 children the year before.

Between August 1999 and 31 July 2000, 50 children were referred for an adoption placement, making a total of 88 waiting for a new family. This figure represents more than 10 per cent of the total number of children in the council's care.

In the same period, 30 adoption orders were granted to the adopters of Newcastle children and 21 children were placed with adopters prior to the making of an adoption order.

Other developments in the adoption unit include a bi-monthly newsletter, Adoption Update, which aims to keep social workers up to date with adoption practice and developments both nationally and within Newcastle.

Changes have also been made to the adoption panel, including its membership and an increased frequency of meetings. A survey of 721 adoptive parents was undertaken. Twenty six per cent responded, and the survey has produced some valuable information.

The report said: "The Authority has a very strong and effective adoption service. Additional investment in staffing has been made, a separate Adoption Unit has been created and, as a result, tangible improvements have been made in terms of outcomes for young people."

The number of foster carers has also steadily increased, said the report but there were still shortages in some areas and morale among some foster carers was low.

"The main cause of this is the perceived unfairness of the new allowance scheme and the lack of support for foster carers," said the report.

It added: "Discussion needs to take place with foster carers to clarify the amount and type of support they need. In response to foster carers' concern, the new allowance scheme is being reviewed."

It urged the authority to look at the criteria for the Care Plus Scheme for children and young people who are difficult to place. More work is also needed on the range and type of placements required.

In July 1999, there were 164 approved foster carers. This went up to 208 by the end of November 2000. Of these, only 35 were approved as long-term foster carers and of the eight approved for emergency and remand placements, all were being used for emergencies.

The report said that "thorough" systems for annually reviewing foster carers had been developed with the appointment of a foster care review officer. All foster carers have now been reviewed and some, where there have been concerns, have been reviewed more than once, it said.

But there have been difficulties in dealing with the volume of reviews and there are plans to hold extra meetings to deal with the accumulated backlog.

Other weaknesses were examples of young people who move around frequently, poor paperwork and difficulties in finding appropriate foster placements, particularly for over 10s.

Many looked after children are low educational achievers and an Education Action Team has been established to address this, it said.

The council has a well-established leaving care team and was commended for the low numbers of children in care who experience more than three placement in a year.

Other strengths included reviews happening on time and achievement awards for children.

The report concluded that Newcastle upon Tyne social services was serving most people well and had brought about "tremendous changes" in the past two years. The council has excellent prospects of making further improvements, it said.

It called for improvements in child protection practice, which was deemed inconsistent, and for a better quality of service in children's homes which had had too many temporary staff and sometimes inadequate staffing.

John Bolton, Director of Joint Reviews said: "Newcastle social services have made significant progress in the last couple of years, and the commitment of managers and staff, and what they have achieved, is impressive.

"Undoubtedly work is needed to improve the quality of some services...but the authority is in an excellent position to build upon its strengths and raise the standards of social care provided to local people."

The report is available in full at the Joint Reviews website.