Chloe Smith MP encourages improvements in Norfolk adoption service

Chloe Smith MP is keen to see improvements made in Norfolk County Council’s adoption service in light of new government figures published today.

The Department for Education has today published performance data for council’s across the whole of England which compares adoption services on a variety of criteria.  Norfolk County Council was ranked 77th in one category after it was revealed that an average of 74% of children were placed with adoptive parents within a year of their decision.  York scored the highest in this criterion with 100% and at 143rd Hackey was the lowest with only 43% adopted.

Norfolk County Council scored better on the secondary education attainment criteria however, with 13% of children who have been in care continuously for 12 months achieving five or more grade A* to C at GCSE and equivalent including Mathematics and English, raising the council’s ranking to 28th.

This publication comes only weeks after David Cameron spoke out at the Conservative Party Conference over the shocking adoption statistics for children under one.  Commenting on the report Chloe Smith MP said:

‘Although I am pleased to see Norfolk County Council is performing relatively well I still believe there is much more that needs to be done to address this situation.  It is important to ensure that the needs of these vulnerable children are always foremost in any council decision on adoption.  I welcome any plans the council has to improve the speed of its current service so long as the care of these children is always put first.’