This report explores the rates and patterns of early permanence in London and provides actionable evidence on how the use of early permanence can be increased in the right circumstances to help ensure less instability for children.
Early permanence is the umbrella term for Fostering for Adoption and Concurrent Planning, which describes a type of placement for young looked after children that may, depending on the court’s decision and the best interest of the child, result in that placement becoming an adoption.
Recent studies have shown that while early permanence is a widely recognised legal approach to finding a permanent family for a child, the uptake of early permanence differs across different geographical regions in England.[2] London was recently identified as a region with a low rate of early permanence placements.
With funding from Adoption England, the five Regional Adoption Agencies in London commissioned Coram’s Impact and Evaluation team to: explore the rates and patterns of early permanence in London; provide actionable evidence on how the use of early permanence can be increased in the right circumstances to help ensure less instability for children; and support children being placed with a permanent family earlier.
Key findings
- In 2021/22, London had the lowest rate of children placed for adoption as a proportion of looked after children (2.2%), compared to all other regions and the national average for England (3.7%).
- London was also below the national average of children leaving care through a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) in 2021/22 (4.4% vs. 5%).Looking at early permanence specifically, London is consistently among the regions in England with the lowest number of early permanence placements – a figure that increased from 24 placements in 2018/19 to 31 in 2021/22.
- Local authorities in London on average placed 3.9 children through early permanence between 2018/19 and 2022/31 December 2022[4] – a period of almost five years. Only seven local authorities (23% of the 32 in London) placed more than five children during this period. This demonstrates the low use of early permanence within individual local
authorities in London. - However, analysis also shows that as a proportion of the adoptions made in 2021/22, early permanence placements in London (17%) were in line with the national average (18%).
This report is published by the Coram Institute for Children, the dedicated research and development organisation for children.