Today the government has published ‘Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive’ – their framework for reforms they plan to make to legislation for children and families. This is part of their ‘Opportunity Mission’.

 The new government’s vision for overhauling children’s social care is broadly encouraging. However, it is another missed opportunity for the government to show that they are fully committed to meeting the needs of adopted people.  

The proposals include wide-ranging reforms of children’s safeguarding, improvements to multi-agency working and better support for kinship families. There is a commitment to continued investment in therapeutic support for children who are adopted and in special guardianship, and funding for parts of the adoption system.   

Adoption UK CEO Emily Frith said: “ We welcome the ongoing investment in Adoption England to improve recruitment, matching and post adoption support, and in the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, which will continue to improve the lives of tens of thousands of adopted children and their families. 

However, it is concerning that a government paper setting out a vision for the future of children’s social care in so much detail, largely excludes adoption. Adoption was a manifesto commitment, and remains a vital option for children who cannot grow up with any member of their birth family.” 

Most adopted children experience abuse, neglect and violence before they are placed for adoption, which for some can have lifelong impacts on their learning, relationships and health. 

Many of the measures seek to improve outcomes for some children who were previously in care but leave adopted children out. The proposed changes to the Virtual School appear to boost the support for kinship children, including those who are previously looked after, by championing their attendance, attainment and progress. This is welcome news. However, adopted children appear to be excluded from these benefits, even though Department for Education data shows both previously looked-after kinship and adopted children lag significantly behind their peers when it comes to attainment.  

The introduction of a Single Unique Identifier has the potential to improve inter-agency information sharing, which could strengthen the safeguarding of children. During the pilot and consultation, consideration must be given to protecting the identity of children who are adopted.     

Alongside the introduction of a Children Not In School Register, the government states that there will be a duty on local authorities to provide support to families, where it is requested by the parent. This commitment will be welcomed by the tens of thousands of families who are home educating because the school system is not set up to support their needs, and we look forward to seeing the details.  

Emily Frith said: “This document shows that the government is taking its responsibility towards children and families seriously. However, with an Adoption Strategy that is overdue for review, these proposals needed to inspire confidence that the government has a robust plan for all care experienced people, including those who are adopted. Except for the continued investment in the ASGSF and Adoption England, the government has missed the opportunity to signal its commitment to adopted people.”