There has been a 45% rise in the number of children waiting to be adopted in England over the past three years, as prospective adopter numbers have plummeted, official figures have shown.
Average waiting times for children with a placement order have also grown significantly, with particularly long delays for those aged five and over or with a disability, according to the latest Adoption and Special Guardianship Quarterly Data Collection.
Sector leaders said the cost of living was contributing to the declining number of people coming forward to adopt, while charity Coram urged the government to revive the national adoption register, scrapped six years ago, to help cut delays for children.
However, the data also showed that councils were placing fewer children for adoption, with the family courts making fewer placement orders, trends that may be linked to the growing adopter shortage.
Rising number of children waiting, fewer adopters
The Department for Education-commissioned figures, produced by Coram-i, the charity's data and improvement arm, showed 2,940 children with a placement order were waiting to be placed with a family as of 30 June 2025.This was up by 45.5% on the figure three years previously - 2,020. Over the same period, the number of approved adopters waiting for a child to be placed with them has gone in the opposite direction, falling from 2,480 to 1,420, a drop of 42.7%.
Coram-i said there were 1,890 children for whom active family finding was taking place, for whom 1,460 adopter families were needed. However, there were just 680 adopter families involved in family finding, leaving a shortfall of 780 as of June 2025. This was almost three times the equivalent figure in March 2024 (265).
The number of people registering to adopt in April to June 2025 - 760 - was down by 12% on the equivalent quarter in 2024. While the number approved during the quarter, 510, was slightly up on the April to June 2024 figure, this was the second lowest quarterly figure for approvals since April 2022.
Longer waits, particularly for older and disabled children
The resulting shortages have translated into children with a placement order facing longer waits to be placed with a family. This averaged 292 days - almost 10 months - in April to June 2025, up from 281 days in 2024-25 and 187 days in 2022-23.The number of children who had been waiting with a placement order for 18 months rose to 410 as of 30 June 2025, up from 390 in March 2025 and 240 in March 2024.
The majority of this group - 330 - were children deemed harder to place (boys, disabled children and those aged five and over, from a non-white ethnic minority or in a sibling group), with delays particularly long for older and disabled children.
Those aged five and over waited an average of 508 days and disabled children 444 days in the first quarter of 2025-26, up from 304 days and 331 days, respectively, in 2022-23.
Courts making fewer placement orders
At the same time, councils are placing fewer children for adoption and the courts are making fewer placement orders.There was a 13% fall in the number of agency decision maker decisions to place children for adoption in the first quarter of 2025-26 (880) compared with the same quarter of 2024-25 (1,010).
Meanwhile, the number of placement orders made in April to June 2025 (700) was 15% down on the same quarter of 2024-25 (820), and 12% below the quarterly average from 2022-25 (799).
In an interview with Community Care earlier this year, Adoption England's national strategic adoption lead, Sarah Johal, said that the fall in placement order numbers may be a reaction from the courts to the shortage of adopters.
'Cost of living driving adopter shortages'
In response to the figures, Adoption England, which is funded by the DfE to support regional adoption agencies, said: "Insights from adoption agencies across the country show that the cost-of-living crisis has contributed to a decline in the number of people coming forward to adopt."This means that more children are now facing delays of over 18 months before being matched with a family - an increase compared to the previous year," it added. "These delays highlight the urgent need for more people to consider adoption."
The news comes alongside the launch of Adoption England's latest You Can Adopt campaign to encourage people to come forward to adopt, which this year is focused on tackling the misconception that adopters need to have a "perfect home" to welcome a child into their family.
Campaign tackles belief that adopters need 'perfect home'
A survey of 502 adoptive parents for the campaign found that 86% had worried that they needed a "perfect home" to be able to adopt. However, 41% lived in a home with two or fewer bedrooms and 65% had no garden.In a comment for the campaign, children's minister Josh MacAlister said: "We encourage everyone from all walks of life to consider adopting to be the difference for children – you don’t need to live in a big, expensive house, you just need to give a child the love and support they need.”
However, alongside cost of living issues, a greater proportion of adoptive families are under strain, including because of a lack of post-adoption support, according to Adoption UK's latest Adoption Barometer survey.
More adoptive families under strain
This found 42% of adoptive families had faced severe challenges that had placed their family under great strain in 2024, up from 38% in 2023 and 30% in 2022.It also reported that the proportion of families who had experienced violent or aggressive behaviour from their child during the year rose to 65%, up from 60% in 2023 and 57% in 2022.
At the same time, significant concerns have been raised about the impact on families of government cuts to payments under the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), which funds therapy for adoption and kinship families.
ASGSF cuts 'leading to poorer mental health'
In April, the DfE cut the annual ceiling on payments per child for therapy under the fund from £5,000 to £3,000, ended a separate £2,500 annual allowance for assessments and scrapped match funding of more expensive packages by the ASGSF.Subsequent research by campaign group Action Against ASGSF Changes found families were increasingly struggling to meet children’s needs as a result of cuts to their therapy provision and longer waits for support, resulting in harm to the mental health of children and those caring for them.
The importance of post-adoption support in recruiting sufficient adopters was highlighted by the charity Coram, which runs the Ambitious for Adoption RAA in London and the South East and sector best practice body CoramBAAF.
Chief executive Carol Homden said children waiting with a placement order were "very young and cannot afford delay or compromise", making it a priority for society to enable more potential adopters to come forward.
"Trust and confidence that there will be lifelong, timely support for adoptive families is crucial, so ongoing funding of that support is essential to ensure that families get the specialist help they need."
Charity urges revival of national adoption register
“With children waiting longer to be matched, we also need to ensure that all options to give children stability are considered at the earliest point, irrespective of agency type or location," Homden added.In relation to this, Coram called for the revival of the national adoption register for England, which operated from 2001-19 and to which all agencies were required to refer unmatched adopters and children within 90 days of their adoption application or plan being approved.
The charity ran the service from 2016-19, before which it was operated by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, some of whose functions were absorbed by Coram on BAAF's closure in 2015.
Homden said that, during its lifespan, the register "matched thousands of children including those with complex needs, to ensure that every child has the best possible chance of finding a loving home".
She also called on the courts to "keep their faith in the role of adoption in the continuum of care".
Declining adoption numbers 'may reflect policy shift'
However, the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) highlighted the growing policy focus on children being enabled to stay with their families, a key plank of the government's current children's social care reforms.President Rachael Wardell said: “Adoption can be the right thing for some children, but it’s not suitable for every child. Also, the direction of travel in terms of government policy and frontline practice is to keep more children with their families, which could be a factor in this latest set of data.
“There are also long delays in the family courts, which a select committee recently commented upon, and which might be a factor in this slowdown in final orders being seen. For children for whom adoption is right, these delays need to be tackled so they can be assured of their loving home.”
