Agenda item

To provide information on adoption performance, progress and activity of Adopt London West.

Debbie Gabriel (Adopt London West) introduced the report, which provided both a six-monthly update and the Adopt London West annual report of adoption activity. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following key points:

• Performance regarding children’s timescales and timeliness of the adoption pathway was strong against national data. Brent’s individual performance was detailed in the report.
• Placement of children with Adopt London West adopters in Brent had not performed as strongly in the annual report year. It was highlighted that Adopt London West recruited adopters that they believed were suitable to adopt, but this did not always mean they were the right match for a particular child. That sometimes meant that where Adopt London West adopters were not happy to wait for a match, they might get approached by other regional adoption agencies looking to place their children with them. As such, there had only been 4 children placed with Adopt London West adopters in Brent the previous year. There had been measures put in place to focus that issue, and of the 3 children in Brent placed in the current year, 2 were placed with Adopt London West adopters, showing a stronger position than the previous year.
• Performance around recruitment was strong across Adopt London. Within a national context, Stage 1 was very lengthy and it was difficult to meet that timescale but all Adopt London agencies were doing well against that target.
• Adopt London West continued to have strong relationships with its partners.
• There had only been a small number of complaints received which all related to access to records which was a well-known challenge.

The Chair thanked Debbie Gabriel for her introduction and invited comments and questions from those present, with the following raised:

The Committee was pleased to see the high percentage of LGBTQ+ adopters outlined in section 7.1 of the report. The report had not mentioned the number of Black adopters that had been approved and the Committee asked whether there had been any. Debbie Gabriel explained that Adopt London West had not yet approved any entirely Black households within the current year but had approved some mixed ethnicity households. Debbie Gabriel provided further information on the Black Adopters Project that was currently underway. She highlighted that Black Adopters Project had been informed by a focus group of young people who gave clear messages about what they wanted and needed from the project, as well as a Steering Committee which had been informed by a working group of Black adopters established by We Are Family. Some of the pilot programmes focused on setting up regular opportunities for young people to come together socially. There was also a focus on influencing schools and a community engagement focus. It was agreed that the Committee could be provided with an update on the project in the next report.

In relation to the plans for DfE and Ofsted to pilot direct inspections of Regional Adoption Agencies with 6 agencies, the Committee was advised that it was not yet known which agencies would be inspected until the call was received. The pilot would not look into Special Guardianship.

The Committee highlighted the positive of the stable workforce in Adopt London West and asked if there was any insight as to how that had been achieved. Debbie Gabriel highlighted that, very often, Adopt London recruited social workers who were burnt out from being on frontline teams, because they had the ability to do therapeutic social work in a less demanding area. As such, it was positive for Adopt London West that it was attracting young social workers from a children in need background, but this then impacted on frontline teams who may be losing out on those staff.

RESOLVED:

i)              To note the contents of the report.