As the Government in England seeks to place more children earlier with prospective adopters, concurrent planning is a current and much discussed issue. Is concurrent planning a solution to the challenge of increasing numbers of children in care, and to the amount of time that children have to wait before adoption? Could it become part of “mainstream practice”? And what would this mean for adoption and fostering practice, recruitment, support and resourcing? Concurrent planning – placing a child with carers who will foster the child while rehabilitation is pursued with birth parents, and who are prepared to adopt the child should rehabilitation prove unsuccessful – has been explored and used in the UK for some years, but mostly in a limited form.