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Rex
UK News

Government pledges £30m to speed up adoption process

by Sam Hailes

It currently takes an average of around 18 months for children in care to find adoptive families.

In announcing the new plans, chancellor George Osborne said he wanted to make sure there were as "few barriers as humanly possible between children in care and their new parents."

Dr Krish Kandiah from the Christian group Home For Good told Premier's News Hour: the Government "rightly recognises a major problem in adoption".

"There are still 4000 children waiting for adoption in the UK. Sadly there's been a funny system where if you phoned up your local authority and you were ready to adopt children and if they didn't have any the right age for you, they'd just say 'sorry we can't help you', even though nationally there's 4000 kids waiting.

"Now the government are saying it doesn't matter where you are in the country, there's a way for you to find a child. Actually it's something Home For Good has been doing already through a network of voluntary adoption agencies. We're just excited the government is catching up with this.

"It shouldn't take 18 months. For the agencies we work with, you're talking more like six to nine months. So hopefully the government will be able to help local authorities to catch up with the voluntary sector in that way."

It is thought the £30 million funding could pay for up to one third of the 4,000 children currently in care to find a home.

More details of the Government's pledge are set to be announced during Wednesday's budget.

Listen to Premier's Hannah Tooley speak to Dr Krish Kandiah here:

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