New voluntary agencies set to boost adoptions

The new agencies successfully bid for a share of the £16m tackling adoption delay grant, which was unveiled by the government last summer to help VAAs recruit an additional 2,000 adopters over the next three years.

The agencies will work in three regions of the country: Coram Cambridgeshire Adoption in Cambridge and Huntingdon; ARC Adoption North East, based in Sunderland and Tyne and Wear; and Adopters for Adoption in the Midlands.

Each agency has been set a target of recruiting more than 100 adopters by 2017.

The bulk of the funding will be shared among the existing 25 VAAs to increase their capacity and develop innovative ways of recruiting more prospective adopters and matching more children.

Children’s minister Edward Timpson said: “It’s great to see three new agencies opening their doors today as a direct result of the government’s investment, finding and helping up to 300 potential adopters across the country.
 
“With more than 6,000 children still waiting for a loving home, it’s vital we continue to do all that we can to recruit new parents and give voluntary adoption agencies a key role in boosting the number of adopters further.”

One of the new agencies, Adopters for Adoption, said it hopes to recruit 124 adopters as well as finding homes for 24 disabled children by March 2017.

The agency, set up by children’s services group Core Assets with a grant of £707,000, is a not-for-profit organisation that has adopters sitting on a steering group and decision-making panel.

Lorraine White, head of service at Adopters for Adoption, said key elements of the service will be to make the assessment process as speedy as possible and deliver comprehensive post-adoption support.

She added: “We will actively challenge misconceptions around adoption and improve the way adopters are recruited, prepared and assessed. We don’t screen people out, we screen them in – that is central to our philosophy of inclusion.”