Court proceedings times main cause of adoption delays according to recently released report

According to a report completed by the education inspectorate Ofsted, the most significant cause of delays for children needing to be adopted is the length of time taken to complete court proceedings.

The “Right on Time” report found care proceedings took on average 14 months to complete, based on a survey of nine local authorities, 53 adoption cases and interviews with 23 approved adopted.

The report whilst also citing delays caused by lack of suitable adopters or weak planning concluded that these delays were not as significant as those caused by delays in initiating court proceedings.

Ofsted critiqued the matching process stating that they were generally robust and that there was little evidence of delay caused by the ‘unrealistic delay for the perfect ethnic match’.

Naomi Angell, specialist adoption lawyer in the family law department London at Osbornes Solicitors, commenting in the Law Society Gazette in her capacity as co-chair of the Law Society’s family law committee said she was pleased with the report highlighting pre-proceedings delays.

Naomi further commented that she was surprised that the report did not flag up difficulties in the adoption process that the government is currently seeking to resolve. She said:

“In some respects this is the local authoprity’s perspective and they see the court process as the problem. While court procedures undoubtedly need to be speeded up, the family justice review is addressing that”.

Naomi also recently spoke at a summit addressing the family justice review.

Naomi Angell is a leading adoption lawyer in the UK. If you are thinking about adopting a child contact Naomi for advice on the legal process.

Osbornes recently held an adoption debate which not only featured Naomi Angell, but the government advisor on adoption, Martin Narey, a Court of Appeal Judge and the CEO of Adoption UK.