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.