Adoption: Ethnic Groups
Education
Keith Vaz (Leicester East, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many Black and minority ethnic children are awaiting adoption in Leicester.
Tim Loughton (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Education; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
The number of children awaiting adoption in Leicester who are black and minority ethnic was five out of a total of 30 children who were waiting to be adopted, at
The data items in relation to whether adoption from care is/is no longer the plan were introduced on a mandatory basis in the SSDA903 return from local authorities in 2008-09. There may have been some children for whom the decision was made that they should be adopted in earlier years and are still awaiting adoption; however these have not been included in this response due to the partial nature, of the data received for earlier years.
The decision that a looked after child should be placed for adoption is made by their local authority but a child cannot be placed for adoption without either a placement order from the court or parental consent. Children who are waiting to be adopted include those who have already been placed for adoption (but an adoption order has not yet been made or applied for), those for whom the local authority has applied for a placement order and those where the local authority is identifying a family suitable to meet the needs of the child. Once a child is placed for adoption, it is for the prospective adopters to apply to the court for an adoption order. Being "placed for adoption" means the child goes to live with or continues to live with prospective adopters.
Information on adopted children can be found in the Statistical First Release 'Children Looked After by Local Authorities in England (including adoption and care leavers)—year ending
http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001026/index.shtml