
A report by the Department for Education, Evaluation of regional adoption agencies, states there are signs that RAAs have improved key areas such as speeding up recruitment of adopters, securing a greater variety of adoption support and better matching of children with families.
However, the report found that many agencies had delayed becoming fully operational by three to six months, with "several operating nine months plus behind their original plans", delaying integration.
Staff in some agencies also reported a "tsunami" of referrals for support and problems with retaining employees due to the uncertainty over the changes.
RAAs were introduced under reforms brought in to address delays and poor practice in the adoption system, which saw wide variation in performance among local authorities.
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