PLANS to overhaul the assessment process for people looking to adopt have been announced.

It comes amid concerns that the current system is too slow and not fit for purpose.

In East Lancashire there has been a major campaign to increase the number of people who foster or adopt children.

Currently it can take more than a year for a potential candidate to be given approval, leaving thousands of children in care waiting months or even years for a family.

Children in East Lancashire are waiting longer than average to be placed with adoptive parents.

Recent data showed that on average authorities in England placed 74 per cent of children with adoptive parents within a year of deciding to do so.

Lancashire County Council recorded a score of 71 per cent, based on the last three years.

Blackburn with Darwen Council was also below average, finding homes for just 61 per cent of children within the time frame.

Councillor Maureen Bateson, Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive member for children's services, also said there were “many complex reasons why the process might take longer.

“We would welcome initiatives that could speed up processes; however it is more important that we have a thorough process that produces the best possible outcomes for the child.

Lancashire County Council has 86 and Blackburn with Darwen Council 25 children waiting for new homes.

Children's minister Tim Loughton has asked a group of experts to draw up a new system to recruit and assess individuals as adoptive parents.

Government adviser Martin Narey, former chief executive of the charity Barnardo's, said: “I am simply delighted that the Children's Minister has decided to set it aside and start again. This is a significant moment. We made the system work more quickly in the past and have increased adoptions, only for numbers to fall back again. But this will, I believe, ensure a permanent increase."

According to the latest Government statistics, children wait an average of two years and seven months before being adopted, while this process takes more than three years in a quarter of cases.

Potentially suitable adoptive parents are often turned away because they may not be the right ethnic match, are overweight or may have smoked.