Many face being trapped there, due to the bias against adoption. The Ministerial failure to tackle this has been woeful.
Our task is to improve a system that is already very effective, albeit far from perfect.
Thousands more are spending Christmas denied the chance that adoption would offer them of a permanent, loving home.
English law is clear on how foster placements should be made and that “the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration”.
A particularly welcome proposal for a new free school.
Too often local authority children’s services are dysfunctional – a lead professional needs to take responsibility when failures occur.
This week, we’re announcing the first 14 Regional Adoption Agencies – which together cover over 100 local authorities and a large majority of Voluntary Adoption Agencies.
More children are stuck in care than when David Cameron became Prime Minister.
One in four foster children moves home two or more times a year.
Every year, about a thousand children in care move school at least once a term. That instability makes a difficult situation far worse.
We will establish, where Councils are unable or unwilling to do so, Regional Adoption Agencies to match children with the right family for them more quickly.
It’s tough enough for children in care to try and fit in. We should not be making it worse – at enormous cost to the taxpayer.
Slough Children’s Services are being transferred to a not-for-profit Children’s Trust – and not a moment too soon.
A new law of child emotional abuse will do little to protect children, but will bring big risks with it for parents and carers.
I am a strong advocate of a family test. However, I don’t want the focus to be a bureaucratic test but a human one: call it the Lucy Test.