CONTENTS
Terms of Reference
Summary
Chapter 1: Introduction
Government policy on adoption
The wider policy context
Post-Legislative scrutiny—a note on
the process
Chapter 2: Adoption in context
Changes in societal attitudes and the
effects on adoption
Box 1: Children in care and leaving care
Box 2: Adoption
Adoption and permanence
Other routes to permanence
Chapter 3: The rights of children and families
Chapter 4: Speeding up adoption for the benefit
of the child
Box 3: How the adoption process works
Impact of delay
Delays caused by care proceedings
Delays in bringing children into care
Early intervention
Delays after entering care
Early placement
Delays caused by kinship care assessments
Delays in matching children with prospective
adopters
Social work culture and practice
Chapter 5: The voice of the child
Advocacy and representation for children
Independent Reviewing Officers
The independence of IROs
The review and revocation of placement orders
The role of CAFCASS
Chapter 6: The Structure of Adoption Services
Who provides adoption services?
Box 4: Recruitment and matching of adopters
in England
Recruiting more adopters
The benefits of consortia and local authority
joint working
Government proposals for structural reform
Approving adopters more quickly
Improving the matching process
Sequential family finding and the use of
voluntary agencies
The National Adoption Register
Monitoring performance
Measuring outcomes of adoption
Chapter 7: Post-Adoption Support
The case for post-adoption support
The needs of adopted children
The Government proposals
Support for children subject to Special Guardianship
Orders and kinship care placements
Post-adoption support for birth families
Innovative funding mechanisms
Chapter 8: Post-Adoption Contact
Government proposals on post-adoption
contact
Contact with siblings
Chapter 9: Access to information
Access to information by descendants
of adopted people
Resourcing of intermediary services
Disclosure of identifying information in
England and Wales
Chapter 10: Inter-Country Adoption
Safeguarding children
Support for children adopted from overseas
Costs
Chapter 11: Summary of Recommendations
Appendix 1: Members and Declarations of Interest
Appendix 2: List of Witnesses
Appendix 3: Call For Evidence
Appendix 4: Acronyms and Glossary
Appendix 5: Memorandum from the Department
for Education, October 2012
Appendix 6: Letter to the Chairman from the
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families
Dated 7 November 2012
Appendix 7: Letter to the Chairman from the
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families
Dated 23 January 2013
Appendix 8: Letter to the Chairman from the
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families
Dated 12 February 2013
Evidence is published online at www.parliament.uk/hladoption
and available for inspection at the Parliamentary Archives (020
7219 5314)
References in footnotes to the Report are as follows:
Q refers to a question in oral evidence
Witness names without a question reference refer
to written evidence
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