The Office for National Statistics has released figures for adoptions in England and Wales in 2012 that show an increase in the number of adoptions taking place.
In 2012 there were 5,206 adoptions, an increase of 9.8% since 2011 when there were 4,740 adoptions.
Responding to these figures, Elaine Dibben, BAAF's Adoption Development Consultant, said:
"The British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) is pleased to see there has been an increase in the number of children who were adopted in 2012. This reflects significant efforts being made to improve the court timescales for making decisions about children needing adoption, an increased emphasis on recruiting adopters for the children who are still waiting and a proactive approach to reducing delays in matching and placing children with adoptive families who can meet their needs and offer them the security of a permanent home.
"The figures also show we still need to make stringent efforts to ensure that young children (under one year) are placed in their permanent families without delay so they can begin to make the secure attachments that are important to their emotional health and well-being and also to keep a focus on older children, who may be seen as harder to place but nevertheless would benefit from the security that adoption can offer.
"There are still about three times as many children waiting for adoption than there are adopters available so we need to continue our efforts to encourage more adopters to come forward–particularly for children over the age of five, those being placed with their siblings and children with disabilities and to ensure that adoption support services they may need will be available to them."
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