Adoption and Care Statistics 2013-2014

[Lilka]

From the ONS, released yesterday, give the last year's figures (from April 2013 to March 2014). All the tables and documents can be found here - www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2

This has given me something to do! For anyone whose pretty new to MN, I normally produce a (rather longwinded) summary of important adoption documents/stats for you all, and since DS is in bed, doing this is stopping me from slumping sadly on the couch!!!

My summary, from a quick glance over everything:

Finalised Adotion Stats

• There were 5050 finalised adoptions last year. An increase from every year beforehand, in fact an entire 58% more adoptions than just 4 years ago. 26% higher than 2013.

• Gender of children adopted remains equal. This year it's 2,510 boys to 2,540 girls, every year before it's been more boys than girls, again by a similarly small margin.

• 180 adoption finalisations of children under 1

• Therefore I will speculate and hazard a guess at between 300-400 placements of children under 1, given how long it takes to get to court after the initial weeks

• Compared to 3,840 finalisations in the 1-4 age group, 960 in the 5-9 age group, and 70 in the 10-15 age group

• Average age at adoption (finalisation, NOT placement) is now 3 years, 5 months, meaning the average age at placement in almost certainly 2 years old

• Of all the children adopted, 3,380 were under 1 when they were taken into continuous care.

Children Placed For Adoption Stats

The number of children placed for adoption is actually down very slightly on 2013, not up. There were 3,580 kids placed on 31st March this year (360 of thse are placed with their FC's) compared to 10 less last year.

Also placement orders however are down 14% to 9,260 on the 31st March, having risen since 2010.

My personal interpretation of this is I suspect it is largely the effect of the Re B-S ruling. Because of this, I will speculate that numbers of children placed will not rise next year either, but remain stable or perhaps fall a bit further

Also, of the children placed for adoption in March, 260 (+60 with FC's) were placed under s19 (ie. relinquished, no placement order), the remaining 2,970 (+300) under s20 (Placement Orders). I therefore officially was totally wrong in thinking numbers of relinquishments were rather lower than that

Hope that's interesting to everyone!
Now I'm off to bed!!

Thanks Lilka- v interesting although I'm not quite sure what to make of the stats for my area. Less children adopted last year than I had expected, although on the other hand I have no idea how many prospective adoptive families are waiting for a match so it's not giving me much insight from a matching point of view! I didn't even see the gender stats so will have to look in more detail in the morning :-)

Ps. Just caught up on your other post Lilka so even bigger thanks for posting this info despite everything else. I don't post that often myself but am a frequent lurker and I have always found you to be such an incredibly helpful and wise contributor to the adoption threads. Hope you manage to have a good nights sleep and that things feel better in the morning.

Thank you :) I find it pretty helpful to sit and focus on writing or analyse things when I'm stressed/upset, I get very absorbed in it

I haven't looked at any area stats yet, I'll take a look tomorrow. I skim read the beginning of the big document then looked at the adoption spreadsheet figures

I would definitely appreciate more figures about approved adopters

Thank you :) I find it pretty helpful to sit and focus on writing or analyse things when I'm stressed/upset, I get very absorbed in it

I haven't looked at any area stats yet, I'll take a look tomorrow. I skim read the beginning of the big document then looked at the adoption spreadsheet figures

I would definitely appreciate more figures about approved adopters

Thanks Lilka, for a newbie like me this is very helpful. Thank you for the intro and link ??

Forgot to say, thanks for any ideas. xx

Oops-sorry, didn't mean to post here, I meant to write a new thread. Sorry Lilka. I've asked for it to be removed.

Don't worry about it sunshine, I'm sorry you are going through this I waited over a year post-approval for both my daughters, and I was only looking at hard-to-place children. I remember it being hard, especially the first time, and losing a possible match is ever so difficult x But because I waited so long, I found my children. Your children are out there somewhere, and you will find them x

Have you sent any profiles out to other LA's? One sheet introductions to your family in case they don't have an in-house match for one of their children/sibling groups?

If you find yourself having passed the (ish) 9 month mark, it might be worth retaking a look at your matching criteria and checking where it is or isn't fitting in with the profiles of the children who you are seeing online, or in your LA, and having a think about whether you are comfortable with altering any of them

Are there any events lie adoption parties in your area, and would you be willing to attend them?

It does sound to me like you are doing the right things, and being proactive with being on AdoptionLink etc. Sometimes it's important to be proactive

Best of luck x

Namechanged as might be a bit identifying.

Have just received a newsletter from the LA where we live (didn't adopt through them). They say that they have the highest number of 'waiting adopters' ever. They also say that the number of adoption placements has pretty much halved (if I remember correctly - happy to check if anyone interested but don't have the newsletter to hand atm); and that a full quarter of the LA's applications for placement orders has been rejected by the courts. That seems like a lot to me, it kind of indicates that the LA hasn't yet caught up with the changes in jurisdiction and hence isn't providing the courts with the right amount/type of evidence.

Lookingforsunshine, the newsletter also lists details of regular meetings/workshops/drop-ins for approved, waiting adopters. So that waiting adopters can support each other and get ideas of ways in which they can get (more) proactive. Might be worth checking with your LA if they have something like this, and if not, suggesting that they start up a group? You could even volunteer to facilitate it in some way - that would keep you busy...
Sorry to hear how hard it is for you at the moment, I hope you get good news soon. We too found the time between approval panel and matching panel the hardest bit of the whole process.

I would be interested to have stats on how many birth parent meet the adoptive parents.
How many contact letters are written and responded to.
How many sessions of counselling birth parents/adoptive parents receive.
How long from placement order to adoption order.