Children with a plan for adoption waiting longer to be adopted than before the pandemic

Children in England with a plan for adoption continue to wait longer in the care system  before being placed with their adoptive family than they did before the pandemic, according to figures released yesterday by the Department for Education. 

The latest data shows that on average, it takes one year and seven months for a child to be placed with their adoptive family from care, the same length of time as last year, up four months from 2020.  

It also shows that the average time it takes for a child to be adopted from care is two years and five months, which is the same period as last year, but five months longer than it took in 2020.  

The number of adoptions remains similar to previous years, with 2,980 adoptions taking place in the year to March 2024, compared to 3,000 in the year to March 2023. Following a peak of 5,360 adoptions in 2015, there has been an overall decline in the number of adoptions taking place.  

The number of special guardianship orders (SGOs) totalled 3,860 in the last year, the same as the previous year and has remained around this figure since 2016. In 2019 the number of special guardianship orders overtook the number of adoptions, but the proportion of special guardianship orders compared to adoption orders has stabilised since this time. 

The average age for special guardianship remains six years and three months, compared to the average age of adoption which is three years and four months. Special guardianship orders are overwhelmingly obtained by family members or friends of the family who were caring for a child, or by foster carers (including family/friend foster carers), suggesting that SGOs are predominantly being used where children would otherwise have been in informal kinship arrangements or long-term foster care. 

These figures sit against a backdrop of an increase in the number of young people entering care over the last five years, from 80,000 in 2020 to 83,630, the greatest percentage of whom are aged 10 – 15 (38%) and 16 and over (27%). However, there has been a marginal decline in the last year, when the number of those entering care reached a peak of 83,760.