Agenda item

Regional Adoption Agency

For the sub-committee to receive a 12 month update report on the progress made by the Regional Adoption Agency

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) 2017/18 Annual Report which was presented by the Head of Service Looked After Children and Care Leavers. The Interim Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help was also in attendance to present the information and to address the enquiries of the Committee.

 

It was reported that a year had elapsed since changes in delivering Adoption Services had been introduced. In Oldham, children and young people remained the responsibility of the Council, but members of staff had been seconded to Bolton Council, the host Council for the RAA, to deliver services concerning care planning, adoptive/foster parent recruitment. The Adoption Leadership Board (i.e.: the national board with the responsibility to improve performance of the adoption system in England) had introduced changes in the Adoption Services since 2008 to accelerate the process of finding a placement for children as well as recruiting adoptive families. It was reported that, nationally, the shortage of adopters had an impact on adoption performance. However, in 2017/18 Oldham had done well, outperforming England average and statistical neighbours with regard to the length of time from the point when children came into care to the time when they were placed with the adoptive families (i.e.: A1 indicator - Child Entering Care Starting Adoption Placement).

A2 indicator (i.e.: Placement Order to Matching), showed that there had been improvement compared to the previous year and Oldham was still performing better than national average and statistical neighbours, although it had missed the target. It was explained that the demographic in Oldham had to be considered when reading these statistics as there were a high number of children considered “hard to place” due to age, ethnicity, health needs and/or being part of a sibling group.

 

With regard to recruitment of adoptive families and adoption support, Elected Members were informed that, through the RAA, Oldham had been able to merge resources and to invest in a wider and sustained recruiting campaign; as a result, a number of adopters had come forward. It had also been possible to access increased support for adoptive families and members of staff and adopters had been able to access more training and development courses. With the RAA, Oldham could host events at no cost and place children without paying an interagency fee. It was reported that 50% of children had been placed within local authorities which were part of the RAA.

 

Members sought and received clarification / commented on the following points:

-       Agency Decision Maker – It was explained that this was a role prescribed by the legislation for a senior manager within the organisation. In Oldham, the Interim Director of Children’s Services was invested with this role.

-       Adoption Leadership Board Scorecard – It was explained that this was a Government’s measure on a three-year period; this specific level of detail had been required for the purpose of data analysis. In order to provide today’s data, year to date figures had been extracted from the system.

-       Lessons learnt from previous years – It was explained that a new service manager was in post who implemented new practices. Previously, professionals would wait for a court order before considering a placement, whereas, currently, opportunities for a placement were considered at a very early stage. Furthermore, an adoption tracker was in place to follow children from when they entered a Child Protection Plan throughout the Court process. Collaboration also led to an improvement as all local authorities who were part of the RAA had to share the same pool of adopters. The RAA could be more responsive to what professionals needed. For example, in the instance of very young babies who were likely not to return to their birth family, the RAA could look immediately at a Foster for Adoption Scheme, so that the child could stay with the same family from a very early stage. This would improve the outcome for children. 

-       Opportunities for fostering, was Oldham attracting foster carers from private agencies? – It was explained that Oldham had a cohort of specialist foster carers / adopters. Almost 80% of children placed with foster carers were placed with local authority foster carers. For older children, the Council used Independent Fostering Agencies.

-       Placement with family of origin – It was explained that adoption would be the last resort and services would always look at the family of origin as first placement for the child; 50% of children were placed with family members, often via granting Special Guardianship.

-       Monitoring placement progress – It was explained that following a placement with a family, the child would not be adopted until the Adoption Order would be in place. Therefore, until this point, a Social Worker and a Review Independent Officer would remain allocated to that child. Once the Adoption Order was in place, the adoptive family would be parenting independently. However, if necessary, post adoption support would be available.

-       Activity days – It was explained that these were carefully planned; there were many exchange days during which potential adopters viewed children’s profiles.

-       Break down of placements – It was explained that disruptions to a placement could happen; sometimes this could be triggered by young people’s attempt to get in touch with their birth family. Post adoption support services were specially trained to deal with these situations.

-       Expected changes in the next 12 months – It was explained that Special Guardianship would be given more scrutiny for the benefit of children. The Adoption Leadership Board would publicise guidance to formally challenge the RAA. It would be about refining and developing mechanisms which were already in place. Previously there was an agency fee; now the focus was on mutually beneficial arrangements for all local authorities involved.

-       Budget integration and benefit – It was explained that resources had been merged with the other five local authorities who were part of the RAA. This had given Oldham the opportunity to access high level training which previously was not accessible as it was very costly.

 

RESOLVED that:

1.    The content of the report be noted;

2.    A progress report be presented in 12 months.

Supporting documents: