The Government has announced details of 14 regional agencies that will bring councils and voluntary groups together to help reform the adoption system.
Some 112 local authorities across England will be involved, including all 33 London boroughs and every council in Yorkshire and Humber.
The regional adoption agencies will deliver a ‘triple win’, said the Government, by growing the pool of approved adopters, making support more widely available and through better targeted recruitment of adoptive families.
By working alongside local voluntary adoption agencies, it is hoped councils will help them to improve matching.
The Government said: ‘At the moment, adoption is happening at too small and localised a scale. One study showed that in around one in three cases, children were left waiting longer than necessary due to councils’ reluctance to look outside their immediate area for the right family – a further delay to a life full of love and stability.’
It said it would provide financial and practical support to the regional agencies ‘to implement the greatest step change in the way children are matched for adoption in a generation’.
Each of the 14 agencies will receive financial support and practical support from the Government’s delivery partner – the Consortium of Deloitte and Mutual Ventures.
