John Randall summarises the findings of an in-house study undertaken by Families for Children, a voluntary adoption agency based in the southwest of England. It took a consecutive sample of 103 children placed from care for adoption between 2003 and 2005, using Matching Needs and Services, a method designed for analysing need in child care populations and developing services best suited to meeting them. The study identified nine need groups of varying degrees of complexity and looked at the service responses to those identified needs. The children placed came from 41 local authorities ranging from nearby local authorities to the wider southwest, London and the southeast, the Midlands and the north of England. The sample offers a snapshot of the contemporary challenges presented by children placed for adoption from care.
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