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<p>The latest Statistical First Release (SFR) ‘Children looked after in England, including
adoption, 2015 to 2016’ published by the Department for Education shows that to the
year ending 31 March 2016, 4,690 children ceased to be looked after due to being adopted.
This is less than the 5,360 in 2015 but is still higher than the 3,470 children ceasing
to be looked after due to adoption in 2012. The SFR is available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/556331/SFR41_2016_Text.pdf"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/556331/SFR41_2016_Text.pdf</a>.</p><p>
</p><p>To address this reduction, we are amending legislation through the Children
and Social Work Bill to improve the way decisions about long-term care options are
taken, so that adoption is always pursued when it is in a child’s best interests.
The Government’s adoption strategy, which we published in March, sets out plans to
redesign the whole adoption system to ensure that we have the foundations in place
to build a lasting change that benefits children.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has
funded research on adoption disruption numbers by Julie Selwyn, Dinithi Wijedasa and
Sarah Meakings - titled ‘Beyond the adoption order: challenges, intervention, disruption’.
This was published in April 2014 and looked at all children who were adopted from
care in England between 1st April 2000 and 31st March 2011. The research can be found
here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beyond-the-adoption-order-challenges-intervention-disruption"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beyond-the-adoption-order-challenges-intervention-disruption</a></p><p>
</p><p>The Department also publishes data each year on the number of children starting
to be looked after who were in a previous permanence arrangement, as part of the above
SFR. At 31 March 2016, local authority returns showed that this figure was 510. This
is available in table C1 at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2015-to-2016"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2015-to-2016</a>.
This data was collected for the first time in 2014.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that
adoptive families need support and that is why we established the Adoption Support
Fund (the Fund). Local Authorities made 5,873 applications to the Fund on behalf of
8,193 families during the period November 2015 – October 2016. During the same period
(November 2015 – October 2016) £26,714,546.16 of funding was approved. Up until 6
October, applications were fully funded where they met the Fund’s criteria. Where
an application is not eligible it would be returned to the local authority to review
and amend to ensure that it meets the criteria of the Fund. Once an application is
approved the total value requested from the Fund would be paid out in full to the
local authority.</p><p> </p><p>On 6 October, we introduced a ‘fair access’ limit for
the Fund: eligible applications of up to £5,000 will continue to be fully funded;
exceptional cases can receive up to an additional £25,000 from the Fund where there
is matched funding from the local authority.</p>
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