APPENDIX 5: MEMORANDUM FROM THE DEPARTMENT
FOR EDUCATION, OCTOBER 2012
QUESTIONS POSED BY THE LORDS SELECT COMMITTEE ON
ADOPTION LEGISLATION
Q1 How many adoptions have broken down (ie child
returned to care system) in England over the last five years?
Does the Department have a figure available for the financial
cost (precise or estimated) of adoption breakdown?
A1
i) There is not currently a regular and consistent
national measure of adoption breakdowns; it is not possible to
say how many breakdowns occurred in the last five years.
Martin Narey found that figures from different studies
ranged from 3% to 30%.[317]
Julie Selwyn studied 130 children approved for adoption
in the early 1990s between the ages of three and eleven. Follow-up
when aged 7-21 showed that, of the 74% placed for adoption, 11%
had disrupted before the Adoption Order was granted and 5% afterwards.[318]
Experts generally agree that the higher figures are for
hard to place groups—breakdown is more likely where children
are older or have more complex needs. Studies of older children
placed for adoption show disruption rates of about 20%, with a
range of between 10% and 50% depending on the sample and rising
with age of placement.[319]
Martin Narey concluded that rates for over 5s were around 25%;
1 to 5s 10%; and under 1s 3%.
Ministers recognise that there is a need to understand
more about why adoptions break down. The Department has commissioned
research into the rate of, and reasons for, adoption breakdown,
which will be published in 2014.The Department has also recently
agreed with local authorities that they will begin recording data
on the number of children who re-enter care having previously
been adopted from care. This will begin with the 2013-14 reporting
year, the first data being submitted in summer 2014.
ii) There is no precise figure for the financial
cost to local authorities of an adoption breakdown. The cost will
depend on the child's care needs and, in particular, their age
which will affect how many years the child might remain in care
following the breakdown.
A study looked at the care cost savings local authorities
make when children are adopted, and suggested that there is an
annual saving of £25,000 per child.[320]
The annual cost of a stable foster placement was estimated by
Hannon (and cited by Coram and Harrow Council[321])
as £23k.[322].
These annual care cost estimates appear to agree, but it is important
to remember that care costs vary nationally and that these estimates
are not specifically for children who have been through an adoption
breakdown, who may be likely to need additional support. Hannon
estimated that an unstable year in care, with various placements
and periods in residential care, would cost £56k per annum.
Q2. Does the Department have figures available
for the numbers of adopted children i) accessing CAMHS ii) receiving
SEN provision iii) receiving other specialist services and interventions
post-adoption?
A2 The Department does not have national figures
available for the number of adopted children receiving these services.
The adoptive population has no enhanced entitlement to CAMHS or
SEN services so data is not gathered nationally on adoptees as
a specific group. Specialist adoption services are provided by
local authorities, voluntary adoption agencies and adoption support
agencies. There is no central collection or record of the number
of families receiving specialist services from these different
agencies; adopters may approach many different agencies directly
and independently if they need support.
Adoption UK, an adoption support agency, surveyed
a sample of adopters about the services they receive. The survey
was over the period October 2011 to January 2012. Their report
'It takes a village to raise a child' may be of interest
to the Committee.
http://www.adoptionuk.org/information/281406/it_takes_a_village/
Q3 The following transcript extract is from an
evidence session held with local authorities on 10th July and
relates to shared service provision in adoption:
"Lord Warner: Can I just make sure
I have understood some of these issues around money and joint
working in consortia? If you are talking about a consortium, are
you talking about, or is the LGA talking about, pooled budgets
and integrated management, or is it much looser than that? What
are we actually talking about? In practice, is one local authority
outsourcing this adoption work to another, or is it a much looser
federation of arrangements?
Councillor Greene: The south-west
one is a much looser thing. It is not an outsourced arrangement.
We run our own adoption service.
Lord Warner: So there is no integrated
management and there is no pooling of budgets.
Councillor Krishna: There is aligning
of budgets or there may be aligning of budgets.
Lord Warner: That is not the same.
Councillor Krishna: No, it is not
the same, but it is—
Councillor Simmonds: Generally
speaking, it is unlikely, because of the legal responsibilities
that sit very firmly with the place in the local authority, that
it would be straightforward to have a pooled budget around this,
but what we tend to have is pooled arrangements for sourcing prospective
adoptive parents and pooled arrangements for funding matching
them with the children we have coming forward. If we know we have
a child with severe disabilities in Hillingdon who needs to be
placed with a certain type of family who are prepared for that
and there happens to be a family of that nature resident in Bournemouth,
then those two, that family and that child, can be brought together
through that consortium arrangement.
Lord Warner: The management is not integrated?
Councillor Simmonds: No."
Is the Department aware of any legal responsibilities/restrictions
that prevent the pooling of local authority budgets to provide
shared adoption services across boundaries? Is the extent of local
authority integration of adoption services limited by any existing
legislation (primary or secondary)?
Q3 On the contrary, the Department is aware of
examples of local authorities which have merged their adoption
services. This is happening through the tri-borough
arrangement for Children's Services involving the London
Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, and
Westminster, and through the merging of the adoption teams in
Warrington, Wigan and St Helens. Under the Local Government Act
1972, a local authority may arrange for the discharge of their
functions by another local authority and two or more local authorities
may discharge their functions jointly (section 101). Furthermore
local authorities now have the general power of competence in
the Localism Act 2011. Any such arrangements would need to be
supported by clear financial and accountability arrangements.
317 Martin Narey's report for the Times, 5 July 2011 Back
318
Selwyn et al (2006) Costs and Outcomes of Non-infant
Adoptions, BAAF Back
319
Rushton, A. (2003) The adoption of looked after children:
A scoping review of research, SCIE Back
320
Selwyn et al (2009) Adoption and the Inter-agency Fee,
DCSF Back
321
Report on the partnership between Coram and Harrow Council
to increase quality and reduce cost of care in Children's Services,
April 2011 Back
322
Hannon, C, Wood, C, Bazalgette, L ,In Loco Parentis (2010),
Demos Back
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