Agenda item

The Board will consider an Annual Report from One Adoption West Yorkshire.

Contacts:

Suzanne Whiteley, One Adoption West Yorkshire

Michelle Rawlings, One Adoption West Yorkshire

The Board considered the One Adoption West Yorkshire (OAWY) Annual Report for 2020 – 21 presented by Suzanne Whitley, Service Delivery Manager, and Michelle Rawlings, Interim Head of One Adoption West Yorkshire. They gave an overview of the work undertaken by OAWY as well as a general update in terms of the national picture with regards to adoption. It was noted that:

·       Nationally, the latest figures released showed that there was no longer a gap between children waiting and the number of adopters available.

·       There was a mismatch between the needs of the children requiring adoption and the adopters willing to consider these priority children.

·       The government had provided £1million to the adoption sector to improve the recruitment and preparation of adopters with a key focus on attracting more adopters from black and minority ethnic communities.

·       The national campaign #YouCanAdopt was launched in September 2020 focussing on myth busting about who can adopt and was followed up with a pilot project for Black Adopters in Birmingham and London.

·       A further campaign around adopting brothers and sisters together was launched with a more targeted approach to seek adopters specifically for priority children.

·       The Adoption Support Fund (ASF) was committed until July 2022 and the next Spending Review was predicted to clarify the longer-term plans for the ASF.

·       2020/21 had been an unprecedented year for OAWY as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

·       OAWY maintained the Duty and Advice service and (whilst staff worked from home) and provided the same level of support for families as before the pandemic.

·       OAWY had continued to work in partnership with Operational Leads across the 5 West Yorkshire Local particularly focussing on the impact of coronavirus upon children’s care planning and moving into adoption.

·       Discussions had also taken place around the implementation of aligning adoption and special guardianship payments and joint audit work had also been discussed and agreed.

·       The work across the region from the Education Lead alongside the five VirtualSchool Heads(VSH) continued togrow. Thehelpline waswell usedand accessedby adoptive parents, schools and other professionals offering advice and support asneeded. 

·       This helped gain a current understanding of the difficulties faced by families and professionals and how best to support them. 

·       Work had continued to   increase the awareness of attachment and trauma in West Yorkshire schools through the delivery of workshops and training sessions to school staff, childcare provisions and to adopters inpartnership with the service delivery teams.

·       The two key areas for development regarding Special Guardians (SG’s) was the implementation of a regional support plan and the implementation of a regional approach regarding the financial support to SG’s.

·       Atherapeutic parenting programme designed for SG’s called ‘Guiding Guardians’ had beencommissioned. The first program was in March and OAWY made a group application to the fund on behalf of the region.

·       The Kinship (formerly Grandparents Plus) project was progressingwell with the further supportprovided from theASF Covid-19funds.

·       Between April 2020 and March 2021, 207 children had a plan for adoption ratified by the 5 West Yorkshire local authorities Agency Decision Makers.

·       This was a reduction from last year’s full year figure of 220 children from across the 5 West Yorkshire local authorities and reflects the delays in the court arena caused by the pandemic.

·       118 adoptive households were approved during the year an increase in previous years.

·       Priorities included placing sibling groups together and increasing adoptive families form BAME backgrounds whist also not relying of matching children to ethnic minority.

·       As of the end of March 2021 there were 137 children with a plan for adoption and a placement order, from the 5 West Yorkshire local authorities not currently placed and requiring adopters.

·       The average time between a child entering care and moving in with its adoptive family (indicator A1) for children in West Yorkshire was 534 days, the National Indicator target was 426 days.

·       The average time for those children adopted in the period, between a local authority receiving court authority to place a child and the local authority deciding on a match to an adoptive family (Indicator A2) for children in West Yorkshire had increased to 259 days, the National indicator target was 121 days. This reflected an issue of a national decline in the number of adopters available and the complexity of children waiting for adoption.

·       The first half of the year saw an increase in enquiries to adopt and with a backlog caused by the pandemic this presented real challenges for the recruitment teams.

·       Two additional social workers were recruited to join the Recruitment and Assessment teams in to increase capacity.

·       Adoption Panel was continued to be held via Zoom and had moved from 7 to 8 Panels meetings per month to increase capacity.

·       When supporting transitions, induvial risk assessments were undertaken to minimise risk and the University of East AngliaMoving to Adoption model had been utilised where possible.

·       OAWY commissioned the Voluntary Adoption Alliance within the region to provide families more locally for priority children. This contract commenced at the end of May 2020 with the aim of 30 families being provided within an 80-mile radius, in fact, 34 children were placed by the end of the year.

·       There were 2 disruptions of adoption placements (preadoption orders) during 2020/21. This was a decrease from the previous year where there was 7 disruptions.

·       A disruption review had been commissioned to analyse the circumstances of the disruptions.

The Board noted the contents of the report and were invited to ask questions.

Responding to a question about delays in the adoption process from stage 1 to stage 2 Michelle Rawlings, Interim Head of One Adoption West Yorkshire, explained that there were some delays in the assessment of potential adopters. This was due to the additional pressures placed on GP surgeries during the pandemic which impacted their ability to carry out medical assessments which were a key requirement of the assessment process.  There were also further challenges caused by COVID-19 such as staff sickness alongside an increased volume of enquiries to manage and respond to. However, two additional social workers had been recruited to add further capacity, and delays in the Courts and GP surgeries had now improved. It was agreed that the Board may send OAWY officers the details of any individual cases where delays were reported for them to investigate.

In response to a question around the further context of the disruption figures, Suzanne Whiteley explained that disruption rates in West Yorkshire fluctuated between 0.7% and just over 2% nationally and Kirklees was below the national average in terms of disruptions.

The Board wanted to know what learning could be taken away from the pandemic and in which ways the national lockdown’s may have helped adoptive families and reduced the number of disruptions.

Suzanne Whiteley agreed there had been a wide range of learning points arising from the pandemic in terms of disruptions. This included the promotion of the University of East Anglia’s approach to transitions and the importance of the ‘getting to know you stage’ in building the relationship between adopters/foster carers and children. Understanding family’s needs in terms of support was also an important factor in minimising disruptions and OAWY made sure that a comprehensive core offer of adoption support was available.

Positive aspects of the national lockdown included giving families time to cement their new relationships without external challenges/distractions (i.e.- such as children going to school). However, there were also some challenges particularly in respect of adopters/foster carers being unable to access their usual support networks (i.e.- friends and family.)

The Board welcomed information regarding the success of the multidisciplinary team and the therapeutic programme for special guardianship. The Board also commented that creative methods of delivering training established in response to the pandemic should continue if the new format was welcomed by recipients.

RESOLVED: The Board noted the contents of the report, and it was agreed that OAWY would receive the details of specific families who had reported delays in progressing from stage 1 to 2 and would provide a response following investigation.