Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of social workers throughout the adoption process.

We do not centrally collect the number of social workers who work on adoption in local authorities. The Ofsted social care annual report 2016 states that “The majority of local authorities deliver either good or outstanding adoption services, and this reflects a pattern that has been established for many years.” It further states that “Adoption remains the most positively judged area of social care practice in local authorities. Where practice is good, social workers are tenacious about finding and supporting the right family, with high quality and timely preparation and work with the courts.”