[Press Association] The number of babies adopted in England fell to 60 last year, new statistics have revealed.
Children are now waiting an average of two years and seven months before being adopted, with the process taking over three years in a quarter of cases.
The total number of adoptions has continued to drop, falling to 3,050 in 2010/11, down 5% on the previous year, according to Department for Education statistics.
Government adviser Martin Narey has highlighted the staggering reduction in adoptions of babies under the age of one, which stood at 4,000 in 1976.
The majority of adopted children are aged between one and four when they join their new family, with the average age at adoption standing at three years and 10 months.
Some 60 Asian and 80 black children were adopted last year, representing only 4% of the total.
The figures also showed that there were 65,520 ?looked after? children in care in England at the end of March, an increase of 10% on 2008 and the highest number since 1987.
Three-quarters of them, or 48,530, were placed with a foster family and 12%, or 7,910, were cared for in residential accommodation such as a children?s home or secure unit.
The number of looked after children placed for adoption at the end of March was 2,450, a fall of 10% on 2007.
Meanwhile, a third of care leavers were not in education, employment or training last year.
Children?s minister Tim Loughton said: ?Today?s statistics are a timely reminder that we must redouble our efforts to do better for children in care.
?It?s worrying that the number of adoptions has continued to decline, and it?s simply not good enough for vulnerable children to be waiting well over two years to be adopted.
?It?s also concerning that for those children leaving care, around a third are not in education, employment or training ? much higher than the general population.?
He said the Government was determined to change the situation and had issued new guidance to strip away some of the myths around adoption.
Mr Narey is working to reduce delays in the system and to help local authorities improve their practices, he added.
Anne Marie Carrie, chief executive of children?s charity Barnardo?s, said: ?An increase in care numbers coupled with another consecutive drop in adoption rates and of children being placed for adoption is deeply worrying.
?Everyone involved in the care system needs to be braver and should ?act fast? to place children with a new permanent family when it is clear that, even with support, the child?s birth family is not going to change and cannot cope.
?It is imperative that decision-making is sped up at every stage of the adoption process, as we know that by the time a child is four years old they already have a far lesser chance of being adopted than a baby.
?Successful adoptions not only transform the life of the child for the better, but also that of their new family.?
The Fostering Network called for extra investment to ensure more foster homes are available for children in care.
Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the charity, said: ?We know that fostering services and foster carers are under real pressure to deal with the continuing rise in numbers coming into care, and thousands more foster carers are still needed to provide stable and secure homes for all children who need them.
?We also need a renewed focus on improving stability and outcomes which remain nothing like good enough.
?Fostering must be a priority for both local and central government. In particular, it?s essential that investment in foster care is protected and, wherever possible, increased, in order to ensure that all children who need it can live with the right foster family.?
Source: http://www.fmwf.com/taxonomy/parenting/2011/09/worrying-drop-in-adoptions/
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