Children in Kent waiting too long for adoptions
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by
political editor Paul Francis
Children hoping to be adopted are waiting too long to be placed
with families, according to an inspection report into the quality
of Kent County Council’s adoption services.
Ofsted has graded adoption services in the county as inadequate
- the lowest rating - on the strength of the delays experienced by
children and those wishing to adopt them. It makes 13
recommendations to improve the service.
However, social services chiefs have taken issue with the
findings, saying they were originally told that Ofsted had
originally rated its adoption as good.
That was then downgraded after inspectors decided to take into
account the findings of a report the council itself commissioned
that highlighted the delays.
Cllr Jenny Whittle (Con) KCC cabinet member for specialist
children’s services, said:
“The contrast in Ofsted’s initial and final conclusions raises
serious questions about the quality of the inspection process. This
has created enormous confusion and the whole process has been
extremely disruptive for the staff delivering these
services.”
KCC was aware of what needed to be done to address the
shortcomimgs and was on course to double the number of would-be
adopters this year, she added.
In its report, Ofsted said: “For some children, there have been
significant delays in identifying an adoption placement due to the
authroity having insufficiently assessed prospective adopters to
meet their needs.”
At the time of the inspection, 39% of children awaiting a
placement had been waiting 12 months or more for a
family.
Ofsted said KCC’s organisation of the service was inadequate,
saying it had not recruited enough prospective adopters to meet
demand.
However, it rated all other aspects of the service as
satisfactory and complemented many areas, including well thought
out matching of children, low breakdown rates in adoptions and good
support for adoptive families.
KCC’s own report, published in November and written by former
Barnados boss Martin narey, highlighted a 'desperate imbalance’
between the number of children waiting to be adopted and the number
of families available to take them.
Mr Narey said KCC should have recognised the deterioration in
services which saw 93 children adopted in 2006 but just 57 last
year.
Thursday, February 23 2012
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