Agenda item
Six-Monthly Adoption Report - Adopt London West (April-September 2020)
To provide a briefing in relation to adoption performance data for the period, the progress and activity of Adopt London West, and how good outcomes are being achieved for children.
Minutes:
The report provided a briefing to the Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee in relation to adoption performance data for the six month period from Adopt London West (ALW) and was presented by Debbie Gabriel.
The following key points were raised in relation to the report:
· ALW had approved 12 adopters in the reporting period with a total of 22 adopters since the service went live on 1 October 2019. 40% of those were from BAME communities and 36% were from LGBTQ+ communities.
· ALW were supporting 31 Brent families, with feedback from the families in section 9.1 of the report.
· In relation to Brent children, 2 children had been placed and 6 children had Adoption Orders.
· There was a growing range of support on offer to families. The WAF talks programme and webinar programme had received good feedback. There were ongoing support groups for adopters and special guardians, with educational psychology support. The online delivery of Foundations for Attachment, a 6-week virtual training programme, was due to begin.
· There was a range of support ALW was able to offer through COVID-19 funding, with adopters in one Borough receiving Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) ‘Child to Parent’ Violence training which had been well delivered through online training and made easy to attend.
· Specific services ALW purchased for special guardians were growing in momentum, such as Grandparents Plus. It was noted that it took time to build special guardians’ confidence when many of them had not been through any preparation or training.
· The national recruitment campaign had begun in September 2020 with a lot of online activity, and the service was ready to respond to those additional enquiries they hoped to receive. There was a specific drive to support more BAME adopters which the service was supporting through the ‘Meet the Adopter’ events ran by the multi-faith based organisation “Home for Good”.
· A recent meeting with Body and Soul, an arts based organisation in North West London, had resulted in the commissioning of programmes from them to do direct work with young people.
· An all staff training event delivered by Professor Beth Neil from University of East Anglia had helped to formulate provisional plans for the new birth family counselling service due from next April 2021. There was a “meet the market” event the following day to meet organisations interested in tendering for the service.
· The website continued to be developed with more user friendly content and was more visibly attractive. There was now content where interested families were guided through some self-help processes before they went to Adopt London West.
Debbie Gabriel informed the Committee that an increase nationally and in London had been seen in the number of enquiries for adoption, but noted that people interested in adoption were likely to spend a few years exploring before they were ready to make the progression to a formal assessment and there were no specific statistics to evidence this.
The Committee highlighted that Adopt London West received less allocation from the total government funding than some other Adopt London regions and queried why they received less, asking for reassurance that Adopt London West had maximised as much of the money as was possible. Debbie Gabriel advised that the settlement was based on the government funding formula for Councils. The funding allocated for Adopt London East and West was very similar but Adopt London North and South were bigger therefore allocated more. ALW had made the decision early on to pool as much money as possible to have a wider reach. Aside from annual subscriptions, which they encouraged adopters to make use of through social workers and weekly newsletters, funding was very time limited. Debbie Gabriel informed the Committee that some therapeutic support had continued until the end of the month and funding for the Grandparents Plus subscriptions services would last for a year. They had also made a commitment to give a grant allocation to the WAF Webinar Programme prior to receiving COVID-19 funding so they would continue to support that through the grant allocation. Nigel Chapman (Operational Director Integration and Improved Outcomes, Brent Council) added that they would include information on the adoption support fund and emergency funding at the next meeting and more information on the impact of adoption support, drawing out how Adopt London West had made a difference to children’s and adopters lives.
Gail Tolley (Strategic Director Children and Young People, Brent Council) offered further reassurance to the Committee that all 4 Directors of Children and Young People’s Services from the 4 partnered Boroughs sat on the Adopt London West Board that provided robust challenge on the deployment of funds.
The Committee asked for further details in relation to section 11.2 of the report, regarding turnaround times for applications to the Adoption Support Fund for specialist therapeutic services. Debbie Gabriel informed the Committee that normally the administration process of the fund was much slower than they would like, with an average wait of 3 months for therapy to start from the time an application was submitted. Adopt London West were confident that the applications by the social workers were submitted promptly, and there was no waiting list for a social worker to conduct an assessment, but it was after the application was submitted and the process of ensuring funding was agreed that caused the lengthy wait. However, as a result of receiving COVID-19 funding Adopt London West were able to commission the services and families could self-refer and see a therapist within a week, so it was much more responsive and Adopt London West would like to see that remain in the future. The Government were not due to make any formal announcements but there was a likelihood it would continue, therefore devolving an element of the budget would be hugely beneficial. Adopt London West were lobbying for this.
Regarding the monthly panel activity, the Committee highlighted that there was less matching in Brent. Debbie Gabriel advised that activity would appear small as there was a small number of children across Adopt London West and a small number of agreed adoption plans. There were a few children in Brent in the process of being linked with families so the next update would be able to confirm that they were matched. Onder Beter (Head of Looked After Children and Permanency, Brent Council) added that there were around 5 children currently in the process of family finding and 6 adoptions had been achieved in the reporting period, in comparison to 3 for the entire year the previous year.
RESOLVED: to note the contents of the report.
Supporting documents: