Council branded one of slowest for adoptions defends its record

A YORKSHIRE council branded one of the slowest in the country for adopting children has defended its record.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council came near the bottom as the Government published adoption performance tables of the best and most under-performing local authorities for the first time in an attempt to improve performance.

Just 57 per cent of children in care in the East Riding were adopted within 12 months in the three years up to 2010 – the fourth poorest record in the country. In contrast, every child up for adoption in York was found a family within a year.

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Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to lead a fresh drive to boost adoption and warned yesterday that it was taking for too long for children in care to be found new homes.

But Ian Wilson, adoption team manager at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, insisted that the figures did “not show the true complexity” of the situation and said there had to be a “rigorous process” in place to ensure the best possible outcome for each child and their new family.

He said the adoption team had recently been judged by inspectors as outstanding and said assessments had to be thorough. He added: “Whilst time-scales are helpful to professionals to keep focused, what must not happen is that life-changing decisions, such as matching children with families, are made to meet a timescale rather than best meeting the needs of the child.”

The tables were released as the Government launched a fresh campaign on adoption with the Prime Minister calling for a culture change. He urged officials to stop asking pointless questions such as when prospective adoptive parents gave up smoking, and to show more “discretion, judgment and responsibility”.

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He said: “We need a real culture change in this country to be more pro-adoption. For many children it is the right answer. They start in the care system with a terrible start in life.

“Many many children in the care system under the age of one, actually a successful adoption can give them a great start in life and a great life.”

Mr Cameron said that it took on average two and a half years for a child to be adopted and said the system would be made simpler and less bureaucratic, with councils encouraged to see adoption as a success rather than a failure.

The tables showed that in Hackney just 43 per cent of children put up for adoption were found homes within a year in 2008-10. In Kirklees and Calderdale the figure was 65 per cent and 70 per cent in Sheffield, Doncaster, Bradford and North East Lincolnshire.

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At the other end of the scale, Wakefield achieved 89 per cent, North Yorkshire 87 per cent and Leeds 85 per cent. The national average was 74 per cent.

Other figures showed that from 2009-2011, England successfully adopted just 12 per cent of children in care. North East Lincolnshire had one of the highest success rates, at 25 per cent.

Doncaster had the highest proportion – 17 per cent – of children put into three different placements within a year.

Councillor Ruth Potter, City of York Council’s cabinet member for education, children and young people’s services, said: “The national average length of time for an adoption to take place is two years and seven months, but over the last three years York has successfully placed children with new families within 12 months of the decision being made that they should be adopted.”