Latest Department for Education figures show the number of looked-after children placed for adoption last year was the lowest this century.
In the year to March 2023, 2,960 children left local authority care under an adoption order. This was a 2% fall from the previous year and continued the long-term decline since the 2015 peak when 5,360 children were adopted.
The DfE blames the decline on two court rulings in 2013 which stated that adoption orders should be made only when there was no other alternative, such as placing a child with birth relatives.
However, the DfE data shows that it now takes longer for a child to be placed for adoption – the average time between a child entering care and being placed was one year and seven months, one month longer than in 2022 – and for adoptions to be completed – on average it took two years and five months for a child to be adopted, two months longer than in 2019.
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