Agenda item

To consider the above report.

Nicola Booth, Operations Manager and Gail Spray, Head of Service for Adoption Counts attended the Committee to present the Adoption Annual Report 1 April 2019- 31 March 2020.

Key highlights included:

·         The strength of working relationships between Adoption Counts and Cheshire East Council; robust tracking systems in place for children and had a joint up working approach to care plans;

·         Last year 16 children were adopted and 19 placed, this was consistent with year before (17 adopted and 16 placed);

·         There had been an increase in timescales for children being adopted and placed, this had risen in comparison to years before; and

·         It had been important to find adopters to meet the needs of often complex health or development needs of children over a life long period.

Nicola gave a case study of a six year old girl who had been registered blind and had suffered significant abuse and neglect during the first four years of her life.  She needed a family to meet lifelong needs.  Due to the importance placed on individual care plans, she has gone on to flourish with her adoptive family. 

A1 figures related to the child coming into care and moving in with family.  A2 figures related to the time when court places order and Local Authority deciding on a match. 

Both A1 and A2 figures were judged nationally.

A1 figures were 426 days.  Currently the average was 486 days for England. 

A2 figures were 121 days, current 201 days is national England average.

Adopters were approved by adoption counts, rather than nationwide.  Lots of time was spent assessing families to get a good knowledge on strengths and weaknesses to be able to support where necessary.  Placing inhouse gave a good outcome for children.

Two children had been placed in fostering for adoption, the children join the families at earlier point in their lives which is positive for children.

There had been a slight increase of those with a plan of adoption (23), 25 where the Court had given placement orders.

The quality of reports for adopted children had improved and contained much more detail of the journey of the child.  Children could now see their history later in their life. 

The Adoption support service had received feedback that people had chosen them as an agency because of the organisations reputation. 

The ongoing developments for the service related attracting those from BAME communities as potential adoptive families.

Adoption Counts had organised Adoption picnics which had proved as a successful matching method, 76 children were able to be profiled and 85 adoptive families been to those.

There had been 110 adopters approved in last year, an increase from 85 in the previous year.  However there was a recognised national adopter shortage.

The Committee were invited were pleased to see the reasons outlined in the report for why timescales may have taken longer in some instances.

There was some conversation about why Cheshire East Council had the highest number of applications for adoption support across a geography of Stockport, Manchester, Trafford and Salford.  The Committee heard that Cheshire East were able to advocate successfully for the needs of their children.

The Committee were interested in peer support and were pleased to hear how adopters are supported (at times) organically through peer support and thought this was a positive outcome to reassure new parents.

RESOLVED-

That Nicola and Gail be thanked for their attendance and presentation and that the report be received and noted.