Change of plan away from adoption - an exploration from a practitioner perspective

This study was designed to explore what is known of the practice and the reasoning when children’s plans are changed away from adoption. The number of children who have had their care plans changed away from adoption to another form of permanence between 2020 and 2024 has ranged between 540 and 880 children annually. The administrative data that provides these figures gives a top-level indication as to why this change of plan happens using the following categories: adopters not found, Placement Order not made, children’s needs changed or other. Placement Order not made has been increasing as a
reason in recent years. Previous research has indicated that there have always been some children for whom plans for adoption are changed. This group of children is more likely to include children of black and minority ethnic heritage, who have disabilities, and who have additional risk factors such as parental mental health or experiences of abuse in their backgrounds. Although broad reasons for changes of plan are recorded, and categories of children whose plans are more likely to change are known about, there is an insufficiency of detail as to the professional practice and decision making that leads to changes in plan.
This research aimed to address this gap by exploring occasions where adoption plans were changed with practitioners who were involved in these cases