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If “Oliver Twist”Your browser does not support the element. were written today, it would be different in many ways. One of them might be the ending. In Charles Dickens’s novel, Oliver is adopted by Mr Brownlow, a benefactor, without any trouble. Today Mr Brownlow would go through a fine-grained background check. His mansion would be inspected for safety and he’d be strongly advised to volunteer with children. If he liked a pipe after dinner, he could end up being rejected for smoking.Many children eligible for adoption today are not finding families. The number of children in England who are waiting to be matched with families has increased by 22% over the past year. In the past decade the number of families approved as prospective parents has decreased by 60%.Some argue that a well-intentioned screening process has become too stringent. The only statutory requirements to be able to adopt a child in England and Wales are legal residency and being over 21, but local councils implement their own policies on top. “Many local authorities see the adoption process as a way to test parents’ resolve,” says Erik Ferm, co-founder of Jigsaw Adoption, a non-profit organisation that provides adoption services. “This means you lose some good adopters along the way, but it is not given that those with the best stamina will be the best parents.”Although the approval process is daunting, it has not changed greatly since 2015, when there was an all-time high in the number of adoptions. One thing that has changed in that time is the pressure on household budgets. According to Carol Homden, the boss of Coram, a children’s charity, the primary cause of the falling number of adoptions is the cost-of-living crisis, which makes it prohibitively expensive for some to start a family.Some local authorities require that each child has their own bedroom—not always easy in a country with a well-documented housing shortfall—and strongly recommend that at least one parent takes a full year off work. In theory, this is a good idea: most adopted children have experienced tremendous trauma and need time to bond with their new families. In reality, statutory adoption pay covers six weeks on a near-full salary, and only £180 ($234) per week for another eight months.A post-pandemic backlog in family courts has exacerbated the problem. In 2019 a child in care was already waiting 719 days on average before an adoption was made legal; that figure now stands at 864 days. Because of prospective parents’ preferences to adopt young children, a wait of this length can significantly lower a child’s chance of finding a family: according to Coram, a six-year-old is 25% less likely to be adopted than a five-year-old.As well as the emotional costs for children of not finding a permanent home, keeping a for the taxpayer. Each child placed in an adopted home is reckoned to save local authorities an average of £1m. More funding for adopting parents, including access to therapy, would help; a change in statutory adoption leave to cover the self-employed might encourage new applicants, too. One thing that would still work in Mr Brownlow’s favour today is his wealth.
