Report of the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People
Minutes:
In July 2021 the Committee had considered arrangements for delivery of the new Regional Adoption Agency for Staffordshire County Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council, called the Together4Children Permanency Partnership. This had been developed in response to the Government’s Regionalising Adoption agenda.
The Partnership vision went beyond the delivery of Adoption Services and focused on a broader range of activities to ensure that children entering care achieved permanency. The Partnership worked together to improve outcomes for those children who entered care and were not able to return to their birth parents, aiming to:
i) make best use of the collective resources to recruit, assess and support prospective adopters across the region;
ii) improve the quality and speed of matching for children through better planning and by having a wider choice of adopters;
iii) provide high quality support to children and their families delivered through a combination of direct provision and effective partnerships; and
iv) provide all children and their families the right support at the right time through a consistent permanency support offer across the region.
The Committee were aware that the Partnership had been launched in September 2020, with the first key deliverables focusing on the Adoption Service. However, unlike most regional agencies, the Together4children Partnership is delivered via a hub and spoke model. This is a combination of core central functions and networked regional delivery (via a Central Permanency Hub) enabling Partner Councils to retain direct service delivery functions within Locality Permanence Hubs, working within the Together4Children practice framework whilst maintaining clear links to local Children & Families Services.
The Committee received details of the functions, governance, operational structure and legal and financial arrangements for the Partnership. Members were informed that the recruitment of potential adopters had been supported by strong and effective marketing activity. This had led to strong levels of enquiry and referrals through to the 3 assessment teams, with 720 enquiries for people considering adopting a child leading to 140 referrals through to the assessment teams and 83 approvals. Having a good pool of regional adoption families supported positive transition for children and enabled better support for their families moving through the adoption process. During 2021-22 93% of the children placed for adoption had been with families assessed and approved within the Together4Children region. Members were pleased to note that, where families were not identified regionally to meet the specific needs of a child or children within the region, work with agencies across the Midlands and, where necessary, nationally was undertaken to ensure every possibility was explored to find the right adoptive family.
Members considered data comparisons in time taken to place a child, noting that care proceedings through court took six months. Together4Children performed well against national statistics. Members also considered the support for adopter families, and in particular considered developments in the delivery of “TESSA”. This initiative had been reviewed and was now offered to families much earlier in the process. The support offered included:
i) Clinical Psychologist-led assessment and support plans, family support, and core training;
ii) Innovative group therapy, counselling, coaching, and mentoring, enhanced training, school consultation.; and
iii) Support in accessing statutory and voluntary provision, specialist and medical support and community groups.
Members heard that since TESSA went live in October 2020 50 families across the Together4Children region had received support through this provision.
The Committee were also informed that Together4Children was the first ever Local Authority Partnership to jointly launch the Mockingbird Fostering Model by working together across the four fostering services. Over two years this innovative fostering model had been successfully delivered across 3 regional pilot sites, with the fourth and final pilot to go live in November 2022. Mockingbird is a successful evidence-based support offer creating a network of foster carers sharing experience, advice and expertise.
Members queried whether the current cost of living pressures would have an impact on families considering adoption. They heard that in general those choosing to adopt were differently motivated, seeking to increase their family. In specific cases some financial support could be offered, for example where a sibling group was placed together, however such decisions were made on a case-by-case basis.
On querying the resource available to the Partnership, Members were informed that adoption was not necessarily the best option for every child or young person. Court decisions around adoption were individual, based on that specific child and family, and therefore the number and pattern of adoptions would not necessarily be changed by additional resource.
Of the 104 adoption orders granted regionally last year, 63 were “priority children”, i.e. those children that were more challenging to find the right families for because they were either over five years, needed sibling placements, were from ethnic backgrounds other than “white British” or had a disability. The Committee welcomed the work to improve the diversity of prospective adopters and the wider work across the Midlands to enable broader placement options. Members were reassured when hearing the work undertaken to ensure the right family placement was found, hearing about the family finding team and permanence coordinators. As necessary a national service “linkmaker” was used which looked for suitable placements at a national level.
Members raised concerns around the use of agency staff and were assured that there was a clear vetting process and rigorous recruitment for all staff. They were also pleased to note that almost all adoption agencies were judged by Ofsted as good or outstanding.
The effectiveness of performance data was queried, with Members concerned that nuances of the individualised work involved were lost in flat figures. Benchmarking trends over three years helped give an understanding of performance. However, the priority was always the individual child, with some necessarily taking longer to place successfully and it was important to understand the range of factors involved and not just the blunt average figures.
Members thanked Officers for this work which was making a real difference.
Resolved: That the work of the new Together4Children Permanency Partnership and the development of the TESSA and Mockingbird projects be welcomed and Officers be congratulated for the effectiveness of this work.
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