Agenda item

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People, presented a report on the creation of the new East Midlands Regional Adoption Agency (RAA). The following points were discussed:

(a)  the Department for Education published ‘Adoption – A Vision for Change’ in March 2016 with the aim to join up individual, smaller adoption agencies around the country into larger, combined agencies with shared resources, to provide more options for children and adopters. Since 4 April 2019, Nottingham City Council has joined with Derby City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and Derbyshire County Council to form an East Midlands RAA. The RAA is designed to prepare both children and adopting families for the adoption process, and to ensure that all placements made (including fostering, fostering to adopt, and adoption) are both timely and sustainable. The RAA is in its early stages, but it is working well with partners to ensure that the process for the children in care is effective and efficient;

(b)  the transfer of staff from the member authorities to Nottinghamshire County Council has gone well and personnel are integrating into the new working arrangements – though they remain in close contact with all of the member authorities. Clear governance arrangements are in place, though there have been some teething IT issues in setting up the integrated systems. There is on-going liaison with the other East Midlands authorities, which are working towards establishing a RAA in early 2020;

(c)  a grant from Government was made to help develop and establish the RAAs. The RAA is then funded from the member authorities’ individual budgets, with funding pooled in some areas. The creation of the RAA has resulted in a reduction in the duplication of services and enabled opportunities for savings and reinvestment, with the improved coordination of the effective deployment of scarce resources;

(d)  18 matches have been made as of 23 September 2019, with one further awaiting confirmation from the Agency Decision Maker. Of these, two were sibling groups and two were relinquished babies. The RAA as a whole takes the lead on preparing those carrying out the fostering or adoption, with the Council leading on working with the children to be fostered or adopted;

(e)  the Council has around 625 children in its care and assesses the needs of all of them very carefully, with Adoption Orders given for children when this represents the best outcome – whatever the age of the child. In some cases, a Special Guardianship Order is used. There are up to 100 children in the adoption process at any given point and 38-47 children are adopted each year. The average time from the making of the Adoption Order by the Courts to the date of actual placement with a family is 234 days, currently, so there is still potential for improvement;

(f)  a permanent placement is always the preferred outcome and all potential matches are reviewed by an independent panel and are authorised by an external person. The rate of disruption to placements is low, with only two occurring over the last four months. Generally, it is much easier to find an effective placement for a baby than it is for older children or siblings that should be kept together. The particular care needs of some children can make finding an effective placement particularly difficult;

(g)  the RAA expands the geographical area for potential placements and, given the compact nature of the City, careful consideration is given to where it is in a given child’s best interests to be placed. The progress of placements is tracked very carefully and close, ongoing support and training is provided to adopting and fostering families by four support services working together, across the region. Adopters are assessed and prepared so that they can provide a permanent home for children and help to address their trauma. The adopted children also have support needs that can continue for many years after they become an adult. Support is also provided to the birth families of adopted children.

The Committee concluded that the implementation of the new RAA and its initial outcomes had been positive so far, but that it was too early to assess its effectiveness fully. The Committee decided to review performance against expected outcomes after a year of operation.

RESOLVED to review the progress of the East Midlands Regional Adoption Agency from April 2020.