The Coronavirus pandemic has affected all aspects of our lives and the social care sector is no exception.
As the amount of children in care rises the adoption placements have slowed and Covid-19 is having an impact.
Both the amount of children in care and potential adopters coming forward has increased since the beginning of the global pandemic.
But placements of children with adopters has fallen as disruption to the courts through the pandemic slows the process.
Although official statistics on the year of the coronavirus will not be released until the end of March, current statisticsĀ give a clear picture of the impact the virus has had on adoption.
- 3,190 placement orders have been granted, a decrease of 14% from 18/19.
- 3,410 adoption orders have been granted, a decrease of 4% from 18/19.
- 3,190 Children have been matched with an adoptive family, a decrease of 9% from 18/19.
- 3,240 children have been placed with an adoptive family, a decrease of 7% from 18/19.
- 2,440 children with placement orders waiting to be matched, a decrease of 13% from 18/19.
- The average number of days a child spent waiting to be placed with a placement order since entering care was 612 days, an increase of 46 days from 18/19.
ARC Adoption themselves recorded a decrease from 22 adopters approved between April 2019 and September 2019 to 16 adopters approved between April 2020 and September 2020- as the pandemicĀ started to slow the progress.
These figures are expected to continue to decreaseĀ significantly and final statistics will be released in March 2021.
TuXtra reporter Zoe Cresswell went along to ARC Adoption North East and spoke to director Terry Fitzpatrick see how adoption agencies have been affected by Covid-19.
