Decision details

Endorse the Annual Review and agree a 3-year extension to the Partnership Agreement

Sign-off of the Together4Children Partnership Agreement (delayed since September 2020).

The agreement requires signing by each DCS in the Partnership, Staffordshire County Council, Shropshire Council, City of Stoke-on Trent Council, and Telford & Wrekin Council.

Agreement for the continuation of the Together4Children Partnership arrangement for the period 01 April 2022 – 31 March 2025 as per T4C Regional Board recommendation.

The signing of the T4C Partnership Agreement is an outstanding piece of work from the Project Development phase of the T4C Arrangements. This has been significantly delayed as a result of project support capacity, Covid-19, and time spent reaching consensus across the legal services representatives for the partner LAs.

The Agreement underpins the arrangements to deliver adoption provision via a Regional Adoption Agencies. This became a legal expectation for Local Authorities following the enactment of the Education and Adoption Act 2016.

During the development phase of the Together4Children Partnership, a range of options were explored and analysed in order to identify the best arrangements to support the partnership’s vision and delivery.

The decision to agree the 3-year extension, is predicated on the outcome of the T4C Partnership Annual Review (March 2022) which makes the following recommendation:

T4C Board Members to endorse the Annual Review and agree/recommend a 3-year extension to the Partnership Agreement to continue to build on our successes, address challenges and consolidate regional service delivery.