Coram welcomes government adoption action plan to reduce delays for children

9th March 2012

Coram has welcomed the Prime Minister’s proposed changes to legislation to ensure that, when adoption is in the child’s best interests, they are placed with loving and stable families as soon as possible.

Ahead of the Government’s Adoption Action Plan next week, the Prime Minister will today outline some of the major changes being introduced to speed up the process for vulnerable children. These include:

Proposed changes to legislation will make it easier for children to be fostered by approved prospective adopters while the courts consider the case for adoption. This will mean they stay in one home with the same parents, first as foster carers, and then as adopted parents if the court agrees to adoption. This is known as Concurrent Planning, a process Coram has been pioneering for more than 10 years.

"David Cameron was moved to consider the radical change after hearing the success of a scheme pioneered by the children's charity Coram" The Times, 9 March 2012

Local authorities will be required to reduce delays in all cases and will not be able to delay an adoption for the ‘perfect match’ if there are other suitable adopters available.
If a match has not been found locally within three months of a child being recommended for adoption, Local Authorities will have to refer them to the National Adoption Register so they can find a match in a wider pool of prospective adopters.

Carol Homden, Chief Executive of UK children’s charity Coram, which runs a leading voluntary adoption service, said: “We welcome the action being taken by the Government to tackle delay. Delay harms children and we must all act collectively on a national as well as local basis to ensure that every child gets the best possible chance of finding security, love and stability in an adoptive family as early as possible. Six months can be half a lifetime for a child.

“We are delighted that concurrent planning, which Coram has been championing for more than 10 years, will be made easier as part of these plans so more children can benefit from the consistency it brings. Being moved from a foster family, or between several foster families, before then moving again to adoptive parents is enormously bewildering and disruptive for a young child. Children deserve better and their timescales need to be at the heart of everything we do.”

Coram has more than 40 years of experience in finding adoptive families for children and one of the highest adoption success rates in the country. We specialise in finding families for children who are considered ‘hard-to-place’, such as older children and sibling groups.” Coram pioneers Concurrent Planning, a process which places babies with foster carers who may become their adopters if the courts later decide adoption is the best long term option for them. This is so babies who cannot return to their birth parents can stay with the same family, avoiding unnecessary and often traumatic disruption moving from foster cares to adoptive parents.

Click here to listen to a radio interview with Dr Carol Homden.

CORAM IN THE NEWS

· Coram’s work in concurrency is featured in The Times

· Children’s Minister Tim Loughton MP highlighted Coram’s work with Harrow Council during an interview with BBC Radio London

· Carol Homden, Coram Chief Executive was interviewed by Paul Ross and Gaby Roslin on BBC Radio London Breakfast at 8am

· Jane and Clive, a couple who adopted a brother and sister through the Coram/Harrow partnership spoke of their experience in BBC One’s Postcode Lottery programme

For interviews or for more information, contact Coram Press Office on 020 7520 0427/0346

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9th March 2012

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