adopting baby

The number of babies being adopted in Britain has plunged by 20 per cent in the last year, Government figures have shown.
Only 76 children under one were permanently taken on by UK families in 2011, down from 95 in 2010. David Cameron is trying to speed up the process because many children are stuck in care for long periods from birth, despite prospective parents being desperate to adopt them.

At the moment people have to wait on average two and a half years to have their application processed but the Prime Minister wants this down to three months.

Today’s news about the diminishing numbers of babies being adopted in the UK does not at all surprise us. The BBC has today reported that only 60 children under one were adopted in the UK last year, of the 3,500 currently in the care system.
This marks a significant drop from the 150 adoptions of children under one completed in 2007. The drop indicates that the barriers to authorising prospective adopters and to releasing children for adoption seem to be increasing and the process taking longer.