§ Mr. George RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what proposals his Department has for ensuring that adoption services are part of the full range of child care services provided by each of the new local authorities;
(2) what assessment his Department has made of the effect of local government reorganisation on adoption services;
(3) what proposals his Department has for ensuring that adoption agencies will continue to provide the same range of placement options for children requiring specialist services pre and post-placement.
461W
§ Mr. LangI refer the hon. Member to the answer provided about adoption services by my hon. Friend to the hon. Member for Glasgow, Shettleston (Mr. Marshall) on 31 March,Official Report, columns 832–33.
Reorganisation of local government will involve some restructuring of services for children, including adoption. But every care will be taken to ensure that services currently available will be maintained. The strategic child care plans which are to be developed from the proposals in "Scotland's Children" will be of direct relevance in this respect. My officials have already had preliminary discussions about reorganisation with the British Agencies
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 Voluntary agencies 58 49 65 54 36 Local Authorities 355 326 327 250 257 Non-agency 423 482 386 357 493 TOTAL 836 857 778 1737 786 1 Total includes a further 76 cases for which information on applicant or agency is not available. Information on the number of adoptions granted is not available centrally. However, the number of applications granted was on average 97 per cent. of applications made.
Under the Adoption (Scotland) Act 1978, voluntary adoption societies are subject to approval by the Secretary of State in order to ensure that they maintain high professional standards of service and that statutory requirements are observed. Approval is based on periodic inspections, on-going monitoring of the operation of societies and assessment of their effective contribution to the adoption service.