Details emerge on boosting adoption
The Sunday Telegraph has more details on Government plans to boost the numbber of adoption. this follows the news that in the Coalition Government's first year the number of children in care actually rose and that only 60 babies were adopted. It also follow the pledge in the prime Minister's Party Conference speech to do something about it.
So what is going to be done?
The Sunday Telegraph says:
Councils will have do report on their success in placing children in new households more regularly and more transparently – with the threat of publicly identifying the worst-performing authorities.
Ministers will impose a fixed limit of six months for a child's care proceedings to be sorted out.
Currently the average time between a child being taken into care and being adopted is two years and seven months, a period ministers regard as being "unacceptably long."
The coalition is also considering radical proposals designed to help children who spend periods in care do better at school.
Moves to boost the pupil premium – extra money given to schools for the poorest children – for children who spend time in care, and to reduce their tuition fees if they go to university, are likely to be put out to public consultation.
At the moment, only 19 per cent of "looked after children" (defined as those that spend some time in care) achieve five GCSEs with grades A* to C, compared with 70 per cent of all children.
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