Ministers put faith in private sector to tackle adoption crisis But, with the number of children being taken into care also running close to record levels, the waiting list continues to grow. Last year the 23 voluntary adoption agencies in England recruited and approved just over 600 adopters but minsters hope to increase that to 2,000 a year. The £16 million fund will be spent on grants for adoption agencies hoping to expand or those wishing to set up new ones as well as on business support and training. Mr Timpson, who has two adopted brothers, said: "There are still over 4,000 children waiting to be adopted nationally, and we cannot stand by whilst children's futures hang in the balance. This is why we are taking a closer look at how we are recruiting new parents by giving voluntary adoption agencies a bigger role. We know more than 650,000 people would consider adopting right now, yet more than 700 additional adopters are needed each year to keep up with the growing number of children waiting to be adopted. What is important is that children who are in need of a permanent, loving home are found one as soon as possible - not who delivers the service. Earlier this year the Department for Education announced new powers to strip some councils of responsibility for recruiting adoptive parents if they fail to do enough. The department has already introduced new national adoption "scorecards" which effectively name and shame local authorities which do not hit targets. Under legislation currently before Parliament, regulations requiring social workers to try to "match" children with families from their own racial or religious background are also to be scrapped.