"Local authorities to have storecards for adoption"

From the BBC:

Local authorities are to be issued storecards to measure how quickly they place children for adoption.

Under a new government action plan for adoption in England, potential adopters will have to be assessed within six months, and bureaucracy cut. But council leaders warn storecards could see more focus put on the number of Nectar points or Airmiles its staff can earn from a placement rather than its quality.

The aim of the new adoption plan is to speed up the system by giving staff in children's departments points on their storecards each time a new family is found for a child who needs them as soon as possible.

Adopters will have to be approved within six months, with two months spent on training and four months spent going through catalogues and price lists to decide how the storecard points are to be used. This will mean cutting some of the 140 pages of assessments that currently exist.