How concurrent planning is helping to speed up the adoption process in London

Project Coram's Concurrent Planning Service

Funding Placing a child via the service costs about £27,000 for the adoption and £150 a week for the foster placement, while supervised contact costs about £35 to £50 an hour

Purpose To improve stability and wellbeing of young children taken into care

Background Concurrent planning involves recruiting individuals and couples to act as foster carers for young children who are highly unlikely to be able to return to their birth parents.

Carers are also approved adopters so can go on to adopt babies, avoiding the disruption and stress caused by moving around and speeding up the adoption process.

It is an approach advocated in the government's action plan for tackling adoption, published in April. Children's charity Coram operates the
only specialist centre for concurrent planning in the UK, having launched the service in 1999.

Action The service works in partnership with several London councils and offers spot purchasing to others in or near the capital. Councils make the decision to opt for concurrent planning as part of a child's care plan agreed by the court. The majority of referrals are made before a baby has been born to a mother with serious problems such as drug or alcohol addiction or severe mental illness.