TOWN halls have been ordered to speed up adoptions to rescue children languishing in care after new figures revealed delays of up to two years.

Sunderland City Council is the slowest in the region, taking an average of 738 days to complete an adoption from the point a child enters care, the department for education (Dfe) said.

But all local authorities in the North-East and North Yorkshire fall far short of a new target to complete that process within 14 months – or 425 days – the figures show.

The second slowest council is Stockton (643 days), followed by Darlington (616), South Tyneside (577), County Durham (575), Middlesbrough (552) and North Yorkshire (550).

The first “scorecards”

were published as Tim Loughton, the Children’s Minister, threatened to strip the right to run adoption services from any council performing unacceptably.

They would be issued with an improvement notice, a formal order to tackle underperformance, or the council service could be handed to a different provider.

Mr Loughton said: “Adoption can give vulnerable children the greatest possible chance of a stable, loving and permanent home.

“Hundreds of children are being let down by unacceptable delays, right across the country and throughout the adoption process. This cannot go on.

“These statistics illustrate all too starkly the magnitude of the challenge which we face. I have been clear that we won’t hesitate to intervene where the worst delays are not tackled effectively.”

Mr Loughton said only 3,050 children in care, including 60 babies, found new homes through adoption last year, the lowest figure since 2001.

The threat came the day after the Queen’s Speech included a Children and Families Bill, which will prevent councils turning down would-be adoptive parents in the hope of finding a perfect racial match.

The figures are based on three-year “rolling averages”, covering the period between 2008 and 2011, and will be updated each year.

A second key target will require local councils to find an adoptive family within 122 days – or four months – of a court order to place them for adoption.

On that measure, Stockton is the slowest authority (258 days), while Hartlepool (85) and Gateshead (75) are among councils already meeting the target.

But the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services joined forces to condemn the scorecards – insisting councils were “passionate about helping children”.

Their statement said: “The adoption scorecards have the potential to cause unnecessary and avoidable concern in communities where there shouldn’t be any and may put prospective adopters off.”

Ministers have also published an Adopters’ Charter, to tackle what ministers called the “persistent myths”

that people who smoke, are single, or are overweight cannot foster or adopt children.