by political editor Paul Francis

Children hoping to be adopted are waiting too long to be placed with families, according to an inspection report into the quality of Kent County Council’s adoption services.

Ofsted has graded adoption services in the county as inadequate - the lowest rating - on the strength of the delays experienced by children and those wishing to adopt them. It makes 13 recommendations to improve the service.

However, social services chiefs have taken issue with the findings, saying they were originally told that Ofsted had originally rated its adoption as good.

That was then downgraded after inspectors decided to take into account the findings of a report the council itself commissioned that highlighted the delays.

Cllr Jenny Whittle (Con) KCC cabinet member for specialist children’s services, said:

“The contrast in Ofsted’s initial and final conclusions raises serious questions about the quality of the inspection process. This has created enormous confusion and the whole process has been extremely disruptive for the staff delivering these services.”

KCC was aware of what needed to be done to address the shortcomimgs and was on course to double the number of would-be adopters this year, she added.

In its report, Ofsted said: “For some children, there have been significant delays in identifying an adoption placement due to the authroity having insufficiently assessed prospective adopters to meet their needs.”

At the time of the inspection, 39% of children awaiting a placement had been waiting 12 months or more for a family.

Ofsted said KCC’s organisation of the service was inadequate, saying it had not recruited enough prospective adopters to meet demand.

However, it rated all other aspects of the service as satisfactory and complemented many areas, including well thought out matching of children, low breakdown rates in adoptions and good support for adoptive families.

KCC’s own report, published in November and written by former Barnados boss Martin narey, highlighted a 'desperate imbalance’ between the number of children waiting to be adopted and the number of families available to take them.

Mr Narey said KCC should have recognised the deterioration in services which saw 93 children adopted in 2006 but just 57 last year.