Statistics released by the Adoption Leadership Board reveal that 4,370 children were adopted in 2016/17, 6.4 per cent down on the 4,690 adoptions recorded in 2015/16.
The annual rate of decline is around half that recorded in the previous 12 months - between 2014/15 and 2015/16 adoptions fell 12 per cent.
Adoptions have been falling since late 2013, following a ruling by Sir James Munby in the case of Re B-S in which he criticised the "sloppy practice" of social workers and 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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