Court holds up adoption for 10 children across Dorset

A COURT ruling has held up the adoptions of ten Dorset children – although all will, or have now, been concluded successfully.

The case involved neighbouring Somerset Council and the way full medical reports on children being adopted are considered.

Executive director for Dorset’s children’s social services, Theresa Leavy, has told councillors that because of the legal finding there had been a ‘pause’ in ten Dorset cases but while their placement process had been interrupted, all had concluded successfully. She said that throughout the process the potential adopters had been kept fully informed about the court finding and how their cases were being progressed.

She was speaking about the Aspire adoption agency, which runs adoption services for both Dorset Council and neighbouring Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

Ms Leavy said the service had performed incredibly well during the past two, Covid, years managing to maintain a steady flow of adoptions despite the difficulties presented by the restrictions which had led to a slight fall in overall numbers.

Dorset and BCP’s time to complete adoptions remains slightly better than the national average, at 465 days, compared to the national average of 485.

The Dorset average time between receiving a court authority to place a child for adoption and deciding on a matching home was 106 days, compared to 196 nationally.

Aspire said in its annual report that at any time it aims to have thirty families available to meet the needs of Dorset and BCP children and in the past year recruited adopters from 12 different nationalities, with one in seven approved adopters LGBTQ+.

In 2021-22 84 parents from Dorset and the BCP area attended Aspire training and workshops with more attending support groups with a consultation exercise discovering that families would welcome more social events with other adopters, a monthly support group and access to therapy for the child.

The agency says that while it does adopt some babies, it is mainly looking for adopters who will consider older children, sibling groups and children with additional needs.

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