Take adoption services role away from councils, says top paediatrician

The head of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has called for local authorities to lose their powers to run adoption services.

Dr Chris Hanvey wrote in The Times that a national agency should be set up instead. He argued that the current regime meant councils tried to keep prospective adopters to themselves, rather than share them with other authorities where children were waiting in foster care for a permanent home.

Writing in a personal capacity, he also said adoption services were guilty of succumbing to unscientific prejudice. They were also guilty of ignoring the fact that the younger the child was adopted, the more successful it was likely to be, he claimed.

Dr Harvey added: “Large scale reorganisation can, sometimes, be a knee jerk reaction, in the face of failing services. Occasionally it is easier than tackling poor performance from within. But there is little evidence that local authorities will change in a sustained way. The Last Chance saloon is dry.”