Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress is being made on the regionalisation of local authority adoption teams.

There are currently six live Regional Adoption Agencies covering 31 local authorities. Another 12 Regional Adoption Agencies are working towards going live. We are working with the remaining local authorities on their plans to form a Regional Adoption Agency.

The government is committed to regionalising the adoption system to ensure those children, for whom adoption is the right path, are given the best chance of finding a loving family as quickly as possible. All local authorities should be part of a Regional Adoption Agency by 2020.