Children Waiting for Adoption in Wales: Who They Are and How Matching Works

At the end of 2023/24, 222 children were waiting for adoptive families in Wales. Each year, NAS Wales approves around 155 new families. The gap is real — and it tells you something important about what the system actually needs.

Understanding who these children are, and how the matching process works, is essential before you start the adoption journey. It shapes the decisions you make during assessment about what profile of child you say you can parent.

Who Are the Children Waiting?

The children waiting for adoption in Wales are not primarily babies. The contemporary adoption system in Wales — and the UK more broadly — rarely places infants. By the time a child reaches the adoption register, they are typically aged between 2 and 8, and most have spent significant time in foster care while care proceedings concluded.

The children waiting at year end in 2023/24 broadly fall into three overlapping groups:

Sibling groups. The most common reason a match takes longer is that siblings need to stay together, and finding a family approved to take two or three children simultaneously is harder. NAS pays an inter-agency fee of £59,771 for a two-child sibling group and £81,289 for three children — reflecting the complexity and the real cost to agencies of preparing these families.

Children with additional needs. This includes diagnosed conditions (ADHD, autism, foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, developmental delays from early neglect) as well as children who are assessed as "likely" to have emerging needs. Approximately 11% of children waiting are on hold due to legal challenges or pending court decisions that complicate their status.

Children from specific cultural or linguistic backgrounds. NAS has a legal obligation under the UNCRC to consider a child's cultural and linguistic identity when matching. A Welsh-speaking child from a Welsh-medium school will ideally be placed with a Welsh-speaking family, or at minimum one committed to supporting their linguistic heritage. This narrows the pool significantly for some children.

What Happens When You Are Approved

After the Adoption Panel approves you and the ADM confirms the decision, your regional collaborative begins looking for a match. The process follows a clear sequence:

Local search first. Your approving agency looks within their own caseload for children whose profile matches what you've been approved for. This is the fastest route.

Wales Adoption Register (WAR). If no local match is found within one month of your approval, you and any unmatched children are referred to the WAR — a national secure database hosted on the Link Maker platform. Social workers across all 22 local authorities can view and propose matches.

Adoption Activity Days. NAS organises structured events where approved adopters can spend time with children in a safe, child-centred environment. These are not "speed dating" events — they are carefully facilitated sessions designed to observe natural interactions. Not every child attends; they are used particularly for children who are harder to match.

Cross-border matching. If no match is found within Wales, children can be referred to national registers covering England. In 2023/24, 84% of Welsh children were placed within Wales — the highest rate since 2016 — but cross-border placements happen and are not considered a failure.

What "Matching" Actually Means

Matching is not done on a database algorithm. A social worker representing the child (the child's social worker) identifies adopters whose approved profile, life experience, and specific capabilities correspond to what that child needs.

The child's social worker prepares a Child's Permanence Report (CPR) — a detailed document covering the child's history, health, current development, and what kind of family they need. You receive this report when a potential match is proposed.

Before a match is confirmed, you may receive:

• The CPR and any medical or psychological reports
• An opportunity to ask questions of the child's social worker
• Time to consult with an independent medical adviser if there are health complexities
• A meeting with the child's current foster carer

A formal matching panel then confirms the proposed match. This is similar in format to your approval panel — an independent group reviews the proposed match and makes a recommendation.

Older Child Adoption

The phrase "older child" in Welsh adoption typically refers to children over 5, though different agencies use different age thresholds. The research is clear that children adopted from older ages have spent longer in care and often carry more complex presentations — but they are not harder to love and they are not beyond help.

What older child adoption requires is preparation: understanding developmental trauma, managing contact with birth family, therapeutic parenting approaches, and school support. Around 71% of Welsh children were placed within their own regional area in 2023/24 — which means many adopted children remain in the community and school they know, which is an important stability factor.

Sibling Adoption

Keeping siblings together is a strong principle in Welsh adoption policy, and NAS makes considerable effort to find families who can take sibling groups. Being approved for two or more children significantly increases the number of matches available to you — and the children who wait longest are often sibling groups of two or three.

If you are applying as a couple with a family home that can accommodate multiple children, and you are open to siblings, your matching time will generally be shorter than for families approved for a single child only.

Setting Your Approved Profile

During Stage 2, your social worker will work with you to define the profile of child you are approved for — age range, number of children, any specific needs you feel equipped to manage. This profile is not a shopping list; it is the foundation of responsible matching.

Being overly restrictive in your profile extends your matching wait. Being overly broad creates the risk of a placement that breaks down. The conversation with your social worker during assessment is where you get honest about your capacity, experience, and support — not where you give the "right" answers.

For a full guide to the NAS Wales assessment, the matching process, and how to prepare for each stage, the Wales Adoption Process Guide provides detailed checklists and preparation templates.

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