Statistics released by the Adoption Leadership Board show that in the first three months of 2016/17 (April to June) a total of 1,060 children were adopted.
This compares with 1,210 children being adopted in the same period of 2015/16, a year-on-year drop of 12.4 per cent.
The total number of adoptions in 2015/16 of 4,690 itself represented a fall of 12 per cent on the 5,360 recorded in 2014/15.
The trend is a consequence of a significant fall in the number of adoption placement orders being made, which itself is widely accepted to stem from a ruling made in September 2013 by Sir James Munby in the case Re B-S, in which he said that local authorities must provide evidence that all alternatives to adoption had been considered before bringing a case to court.
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