Research

When a child is adopted, there’s an important transition period between leaving foster care and settling into their new adoptive home. This stage includes introductions, visits, and time to adjust as a family before legal permanence is confirmed through an Adoption Order. In England, around 3,000 children are adopted each year, but approximately 2.5% of placements – around 479 children – break down before the order is made. While this percentage may seem small, the emotional impact on the children and families involved is significant. Although we have some data on these disruptions, there is still little understanding of why they happen or how they are experienced. This research aims to close that gap by exploring the real stories behind pre-order disruptions through a qualitative lens.

In a significant step toward improving adoption processes, Adoption England has commissioned the Institute of Public Care (IPC) at Oxford Brookes University to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of family finding events we previously funded nationally. The report examines the uptake and potential value of 18 family finding events, including adoption activity days, pan-regional family finding events, and exchange events, held across England.

In children’s social care, it is important to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays to placing children with suitable adoptive families. Once a plan of adoption is approved for a child there are several activities that will happen along the way to securing an adoptive placement for that child. The organisation that has the case holding responsibility for a child in care is the one that employs the social worker who is allocated to act as the primary person responsible for ensuring the child’s safety and wellbeing. In most cases, where case holding responsibility remains with a local authority (LA). However, there are some LAs that have delegated case holding responsibility to their RAA for children with an approved adoption plan or a placement order (PO). Adoption England commissioned Coram-i to undertake research exploring case holding responsibility practice in Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) in England. The research sought to gain a better understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of the different arrangements.