Making adoption more attractive is one of the key themes of the Children and Families Act. Other provisions include:
- Better support for adoptive families
- Allowing prospective adopters to search the adoption register
But Cathy Ashley, chief executive of the Family Rights Group, said she is “very concerned” about elements of the act designed to promote more children to be placed temporarily with foster carers who are also approved as adopters, known as fostering for adoption.
She said: “A child could be placed with a potential adopter without the parent having received legal advice, and without a judge or court getting advice whether they should be removed from their parents.
“There are not the checks and balances there should be.”
Ashley said that if a child is subject to care proceedings, parents are entitled to legal representation.
But in situations where a parent has agreed their child should go into care before formal proceedings have started, they are not entitled to legal advice.
This could then apply if it is decided to place the child in a foster for adopt placement.
The government wants to see more children being adopted with less delay.
Children currently wait an average of almost two years between entering care and moving in with an adoptive family.
Children's minister Edward Timpson said: “The Children and Families Act is all about reforming services for vulnerable children - reflecting this government’s deep determination to give every child, whatever their start in life, an equal chance to make the best of themselves.
“Our adoption reforms will help the 6,000 children who need loving homes to be adopted.”
