Coram joins National Panel to Improve Adopter Assessment
22nd December 2011
Coram is joining an expert panel being set up by the Department for Education to review the assessment process for prospective adopters.
Children's Minister Tim Loughton has deemed the current system as "slow and unnecessarily bureaucratic" and has asked the Government's Adoption Adviser Martin Narey to work with Coram and a group of other experts to draw up a new process to recruit, train and assess people as adoptive parents.
The panel will include Coram, the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies, British Association of Adoption and Fostering, Adoption UK, and the Association of Directors of Children's Services.
The main areas they will be looking at include:
- streamlining recruitment process for adopters, by building on best practice
- removing bureaucracy and over-prescription regarding the information collected about prospective adopters
- setting timescales for training and assessing the suitability of adopters and creating a new national assessment form.
Jeanne Kaniuk, Coram's Head of Adoption, said:
“We are pleased to be part of anything that will improve the process for adopters, while at the same time retaining thorough and thoughtful assessment. However, it is important to remember there are many other factors that influence the child’s journey through care, including delays in the court process.
“The chance of a child being adopted drops sharply as they get older, so considering adoption at an earlier stage in the care process is also a crucial factor in ensuring we can find loving, secure and permanent families for children.”
The group is expected to provide recommendations in March on a new,more efficient process to be introduced later next year.
This is part of a wider programme of reform by the Government to overhaul the adoption and care system, and Coram is among stakeholder groups being consulted. More details are expected in the New Year on improving the system.
Coram runs one of the UK's leading voluntary adoption agencies, which has among the highest placement success rates in the country. Along with finding loving, permanent adoptive families for children in care, the charity works with local authorities to help improve adoption services.
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