What Is An Adoption Panel?

In England and Wales the adoption and fostering panels are groups of professionals and lay people who work on behalf of adoption agencies and which have the authority to recommend whether or not people being proposed by social workers as potential adopters and fosters are suitable for that role. In addition they can recommend for or against the placement of children for fostering or adoption in particular families. Each panel must include a medically qualified member who can advise on any health issues. There will be at least one qualified social worker who understand the legal and social issues involved. Lay members are usually people with first hand experience of the adoption and fostering process. This has typically meant adoptive and foster parents but panels now try hard to recruit people who have been in care themselves or people whose children have been adopted or fostered. This is to make sure that the widest possible range of important issues is discussed before recommendations are made.

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