Shropshire councils founding members of new adoption agency

Six Midlands councils have been hand-picked by the Government to join forces to place children waiting for adoption with their new family without delay.

The new group of councils and voluntary adoption agencies includes Telford & Wrekin Council, Shropshire Council, Wolverhampton City Council, Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Sandwell Council, as well as agency Adoption Focus.

Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson, who grew up with two adopted brothers, said: "Every single day a child in the West Midlands spends waiting in care for their new family is a further delay to a life full of love and stability – and so I'm delighted to announce the region as one of the first Regional Adoption Agencies.

"Where adoption is proven to be in the best interest of the child, we have a duty to make sure they're matched quickly with the parents right for them - regardless of where they live.

"By coming together and joining forces, councils and adoption agencies across the region will be able to reach across artificial boundaries and access an ever growing pool of approved adopters, creating families quickly and successfully."

Research shows that when placing children for adoption, councils tend to concentrate their efforts on finding local parents first, rather than looking further afield for what might be a better match.

This can lead to children waiting much longer than necessary when parents are readily available.

Plans for councils and agencies to work together aim to give councils a greater pool of adoptive parents to match with children, making adoption support services more widely available and better targeting the recruitment of adopters.

The Government has provided £30m to speed up the finding of adoptive parents in England by covering the costs incurred by councils who find parents beyond their geographical boundaries, introduced Regional Adoption Agencies to place children waiting for stable loving homes, quickly,

ensured ethnicity is not prioritised over other factors, such as the ability to provide a stable, loving home, introduced new rules requiring councils to actively consider fostering for adoption places where appropriate, allowing children to move in with their adoptive family much earlier and extended pupil premium funding and priority school admissions so that all children adopted from care are eligible for extra funding at school.