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Legal system blamed for adoption delays
The government has been accused of overplaying the race card after Ofsted claimed that the main delaying factor in adoption placements was the time it took the courts to process papers – the inspectorate found that on average initial court proceedings could take 14 months then placing the child another 12 months.
While there is undoubtedly an additional delay for black children because there is a dearth of black adopters, it has long been recognised that courts take far too long to perform their duties, resulting in children staying in foster care unnecessarily for many months. However, it has also long been recognised that those working in children's services blame the courts when the subject of delays is brought up.
The Education Secretary Michael Gove had attacked social services for keeping children in temporary care too long because they wanted to find a "perfect match" for the child. But research by Ofsted concluded there was "little evidence" this was the case – the main delays were caused by the complex legal processes involved.
However, Ofsted did also conclude that some court delays occur because the legal system had a "lack of trust" in social workers. This resulted in 40 per cent of the cases needing extra reports produced by independent experts, leading to inevitable and lengthy delays.
Ofsted said: "The key factor causing delay in tracked cases was the length of time for care proceedings to be concluded before an adoption plan could be confirmed. A high number of cases had been subject to repeat or late assessments of parents or members of the wider family. The time taken to carry out these assessments often had a measurable and adverse impact upon the timely granting of a placement order."
On placing children, Ofsted said: "Processes for matching children with adoptive placements were generally robust. There was little evidence of delay caused by an unrealistic search for a 'perfect' ethnic match."
Matt Dunkley, president of Association of Directors of Children's Services, said: "We know that this process can sometimes be slow and unwieldy, in part because of the number of different agencies involved. Social workers, the judiciary, Cafcass (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) and other agencies need to work together to remove unnecessary delays."
UK Public Service opinion
2 April 2012
