Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what initial assessment his Department has made of the impact of the national #YouCanAdopt campaign on the number of (a) adoption enquiries and (b) adoption approvals.
Answered by Will Quince
Our national adoption strategy, published last year, sets out our bold vision to deliver excellent adoption services across England. It sets our commitment to:
To support delivery of the strategy, we have provided additional funding of £48.1 million in the 2021-22 financial year.
We continue to discuss adoption numbers with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board and with the RAA Leaders’ group. These discussions have suggested that reasons for the decrease include the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, including on the courts and on wider decision-making processes within local authorities and RAAs.
Since the national #YouCanAdopt campaign began, we have seen a continued increase in the number of approvals of adopters. We now have more adopters (2,140) than children waiting (2,020).
Over 1,000 enquiries were received by the 6 adoption agencies sampled for evaluation purposes. Scaled up, the National Adopter Recruitment Steering Group estimated 10,000+ enquiries across all agencies in England during the campaign period.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) encourage more people to adopt and (b) give prospective adopters assurance of lifetime support.
Answered by Will Quince
Our national adoption strategy, published last year, sets out our bold vision to deliver excellent adoption services across England. It sets our commitment to:
To support delivery of the strategy, we have provided additional funding of £48.1 million in the 2021-22 financial year.
We continue to discuss adoption numbers with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board and with the RAA Leaders’ group. These discussions have suggested that reasons for the decrease include the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, including on the courts and on wider decision-making processes within local authorities and RAAs.
Since the national #YouCanAdopt campaign began, we have seen a continued increase in the number of approvals of adopters. We now have more adopters (2,140) than children waiting (2,020).
Over 1,000 enquiries were received by the 6 adoption agencies sampled for evaluation purposes. Scaled up, the National Adopter Recruitment Steering Group estimated 10,000+ enquiries across all agencies in England during the campaign period.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's data published on 18 November 2021, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle the declining number of adoptions and (b) ascertain the reasons for the 18 per cent decrease in adoptions in 2020-21.
Answered by Will Quince
Our national adoption strategy, published last year, sets out our bold vision to deliver excellent adoption services across England. It sets our commitment to:
To support delivery of the strategy, we have provided additional funding of £48.1 million in the 2021-22 financial year.
We continue to discuss adoption numbers with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board and with the RAA Leaders’ group. These discussions have suggested that reasons for the decrease include the impact of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020-21, including on the courts and on wider decision-making processes within local authorities and RAAs.
Since the national #YouCanAdopt campaign began, we have seen a continued increase in the number of approvals of adopters. We now have more adopters (2,140) than children waiting (2,020).
Over 1,000 enquiries were received by the 6 adoption agencies sampled for evaluation purposes. Scaled up, the National Adopter Recruitment Steering Group estimated 10,000+ enquiries across all agencies in England during the campaign period.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for School Standards of 6 December 2021, which schools in the Sefton Central constituency are included in the New Rebuilding Programme.
Answered by Robin Walker
Earlier this year, the department announced the first 100 schools in the new School Rebuilding Programme as part of a commitment to 500 projects over the next decade. There is one school in the Sefton Central constituency: Deyes High School. We are currently in the procurement, design, and planning stage, with a planning application submission currently scheduled for spring 2022. One school in the constituency, Maghull High School, has benefited from the Priority School Building Programme.
The department will publish details of how schools will be prioritised for future places in the programme following a review of the results from our recent consultation, which closed on 8 October 2021.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the budget is for the Adoption Support Fund for the financial year 2021-22; and how much and what proportion of that budget has been spent as of 14 July 2021.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Adoption Support Fund budget, spend and proportion spent as at 14 July 2021, is set out below.
2021/22 Budget | Spend | Proportion Spent |
£46m | £31,203,545 | 67% |
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to evaluate the potential (a) effects and (b) consequences of social media on contact between adopted children and their birth families.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Improving adoption is a manifesto commitment and Adoption UK’s Adoption Barometer report is a valuable resource for informing policy debate. We will be considering Adoption UK’s barometer report carefully as part of our planning for funding for future years.
Contact will continue to be a challenge for adopted children, their birth parents, and their adoptive parents, particularly when this contact comes through social media. It is important that social workers help children, birth parents, and adoptive parents to understand the implications of disclosing personal information on social networking sites, and the harm unauthorised or unmediated contact can have.
We continue to work with Regional Adoption Agencies and Voluntary Adoption Agencies to ensure that services including contact support are delivered to a high-quality standard.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the report entitled Adoption UK’s Adoption Barometer 2021, published in June 2021, on the 28 per cent of adopted young people aged between 16-25-years who were not in education, employment or training at the end of 2020.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Improving adoption is a manifesto commitment and Adoption UK’s Adoption Barometer report is a valuable resource for informing policy debate. We will be considering Adoption UK’s barometer report carefully as part of our planning for funding for future years.
Contact will continue to be a challenge for adopted children, their birth parents, and their adoptive parents, particularly when this contact comes through social media. It is important that social workers help children, birth parents, and adoptive parents to understand the implications of disclosing personal information on social networking sites, and the harm unauthorised or unmediated contact can have.
We continue to work with Regional Adoption Agencies and Voluntary Adoption Agencies to ensure that services including contact support are delivered to a high-quality standard.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the Department will publish its SEND review, commissioned in 2019.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Review has been making good progress, but the COVID-19 outbreak has frustrated the pace of this important review and materially altered the context for reform.
The SEND Review continues to work with system experts to make sure we are designing a system fit for the future. We are drawing on the best evidence available to review the system, before publishing proposals for public consultation as soon as possible.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the (a) implications for his policies of the finding of Adoption UK’s report entitled Adoption Barometer Report 2021 that only 45 per cent of respondents felt their child’s teachers had a good understanding of the needs of care-experienced children and (b) potential merits of giving education and health professionals statutory training in early childhood trauma and associated conditions.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Improving adoption is a manifesto commitment, and Adoption UK’s Adoption Barometer report is a valuable resource for informing policy debate. We will be considering the report carefully as part of our planning for funding for future years.
We will also continue to work with regional adoption agencies and voluntary adoption agencies to ensure that services are delivered to the same high standard and quality across the country. Agencies are already working together closely to improve and standardise the front door service for prospective adopters.
With reference to the Adoption Support Fund, the department sets budgets through the Spending Review process. The 2020 Spending Review set departmental budgets for the financial year 2021-22. We will set out plans for future years funding in due course.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will work with regional and voluntary adoption agencies to create and implement quality standards for the journey of prospective adopters through preparation, approvals and matching.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Improving adoption is a manifesto commitment, and Adoption UK’s Adoption Barometer report is a valuable resource for informing policy debate. We will be considering the report carefully as part of our planning for funding for future years.
We will also continue to work with regional adoption agencies and voluntary adoption agencies to ensure that services are delivered to the same high standard and quality across the country. Agencies are already working together closely to improve and standardise the front door service for prospective adopters.
With reference to the Adoption Support Fund, the department sets budgets through the Spending Review process. The 2020 Spending Review set departmental budgets for the financial year 2021-22. We will set out plans for future years funding in due course.