Agenda item

The Board will consider the One Adoption West Yorkshire Annual Report.

Contact:

Michelle Rawlings, Interim Head of One Adoption West Yorkshire

The Board considered the One Adoption West Yorkshire Annual Report which was presented byMichelle Rawlings, Interim Head of One Adoption West Yorkshire (OAWY). Michelle summarised the work and developments of OAWY from April 2021 to March 2022 as set out in the report. It was highlighted that:

• OAWY had experienced some change during the reporting period, including interim appointments within the management and senior management team.
• This created some instability, but staff retention and recruitment remained positive, and staff sickness levels were low.
• Hybrid working arrangements had been implemented following consultation with staff and this was working well.
• OAWY continued to build on a strong working relationship with Kirklees Council; with Kirklees representatives as members of OAWY management Boards and operational leads meetings.
• There were also regular joint meetings between the Council and OAWY at a service manager/team manager level to maintain effective communication.
• During the reporting period there had been considerable change in the Multidisciplinary Team staffing which had impacted capacity.
• The Clinical Psychology Lead left the team in early 2022 and a new Psychology Lead had now been appointed.
• Discussions were ongoing with commissioners around the future of the Multidisciplinary Team and funding arrangements.
• Challenges relating to Medical Advisor capacity (not within Kirklees but in other authorities) and the issues around GP’s progressing medicals for prospective adopters continued. These challenges had been escalated and raised in the relevant platforms.
• In terms of performance, 112 adopters were approved during the reporting period, which was a slight decrease from the previous year. 
• Across West Yorkshire 197 children had an adoption plan, and 17 were in Kirklees.
• OAWY approved 27 households for sibling groups and 19 households who were open to offering early permanence.
• There were also 143 children across West Yorkshire with a placement order.
• OAWY continued to have challenges around sufficiency in West Yorkshire and there were more children with an adoption plan than approved families.
• 73% of children were placed with OAWY approved adopters which was an increase on 66% in the previous year.
• There was an improvement in the timeliness of children coming into care and being placed for adoption and from placement order to being matched with adopters.
• Continuing to improve performance in relation to timeliness in this area was a key priority.
• In relation to front door arrangements for prospective adopters, 2 team managers had oversight of all enquiries which improved the consistency of decision making.
• During the reporting period OAWY had a ‘mystery-shopper exercise’ and the feedback, which was very positive, highlighted that OAWY were very open and welcoming to prospective adopters and actively sought to remove any barriers.
• Adoption Panels continued online and had increased to 8 panels per month. 2 Panel Chairs had also been recruited which increased flexibility and improved capacity.
• Online Adoption Panels also increased diversity in Panel membership.
• The adoption support offer had been increased and both online and in person support options were available.
• 624 applications were made to the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) during the reporting period, and £2.5m was secured to support families in West Yorkshire.
• An additional £51,000 was secured in match funding from local authorities to support families whose needs exceeded the limit set by the ASF.
• OAWY offered a range of different support workshops and training opportunities such as ‘Stay and Play’ Groups, Therapeutic Parenting sessions, a specific group for single father’s, single adopters and adopters who had adopted a child of different ethnicity, culture, or religion to themselves.
• During the reporting period there were 330 requests for access to records.
• This figure was increasing year on year, and OAWY had an appointed archivist to respond to these requests, whose work had recently received national recognition.
• There were 8 disruptions during the reporting period, but none were Kirklees Children.
• Internally there had been a range of audits undertaken including joint audits with Kirklees.
• The feedback from the audits had reassured OAWY around quality of their practice as well providing insight into key areas for development.
• In terms of the budget, had been a slight overspend during the reporting period but this had been covered by reserves. 

The Board noted the update and were invited by the Chair to ask any questions. In the discussion to follow the Board highlighted that the report indicated that there was a shortage of perspective adopters in West Yorkshire from more diverse backgrounds to adopt and requested further explanation.

Michelle Rawlings responded to highlight that this was reflective of national challenges in recruiting adopters from more diverse backgrounds, and reassured the Board, that children were not only placed with adopters of same background and that ethnicity was a consideration but not overriding factor in respect of matching. However, it was important to encourage a more diverse cohort of adopters as it could help introduce different skills, knwoldge and experiences amongst the cohort that could help children to better understand their identity, which included their ethnic and religious background. It was beneficial to seek adopters who had the relevant skills to meet all a child’s support needs including helping them understand they identity, which was crucial to trauma experienced young people, and all these factors should be taken into consideration when matching children. It was also highlighted that regionally children did not wait longer for adoption because of ethnicity but there were national challenges.

The Board (ex-offico) highlighted that in Kirklees there was high number of Special Guardianship Orders (SGO’s) and wanted to know if this had an impact on the number of children placed for adoption, and how this compared with other Local authority areas.

Michelle responded to agree that the decrease in adoption figures in Kirklees correlated with increasing SGO’s. It was further advised that across West Yorkshire, there were different patterns in different areas and the data in relation to this was variable and dependent on those Local Authorities offers and priorities in relation to connected carers.

The Board highlighted that during the pandemic there were challenges in obtaining timely decisions from the courts and wanted to know if this had now improved or stabilised?

Michelle responded to advise that there had been significant improvements in the timeliness of the decisions from courts, and there were no longer delays in prioritising decision making around children planning and adoption orders.  The Board welcomed the response as positive and reassuring.

The Board were interested to know if there was any research available in relation to the disconnect between the number of adopters and the number of children requiring adoption in West Yorkshire as opposed to the national picture.

In response, Michelle advised that this may partly be due to the demographic of the area and the impacts regionally of the Covid-19 pandemic. In West Yorkshire there was a high number of adopters recruited, but there was also still a higher number of children requiring adoption.

The Board noted the response and asked for the figures in terms of the number of adopters specifically for Kirklees. Michelle responded to advise that as OAWY are a regional agency that they did not breakdown the data by local authority area.

RESOLVED: The Board noted the One Adoption West Yorkshire Annual Report and thanked officers from One Adoption West Yorkshire for their update.