Agenda item

To provide information to the Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee in relation to adoption performance, progress and activity of Adopt London West, and good outcomes being achieved for children.

Debbie Gabriel (Head of Service, Adopt London West) introduced the report which provided an update on the adoption performance data for the period 1 April 2025 to 30 September 2025, the progress, activity and outcomes of Adopt London West, and the Adopt London West Annual Report 2024-25. She advised that Adopt London West had approved 8 adopter households during the reporting period and had since approved a further 3, and had a target to approve more than 20 adopters by year end. Brent had placed 10 children the previous year which had been the highest for several years and, whilst the numbers were slower this year, Adopt London West was likely to place a few more by the end of Quarter 3.

The Chair thanked Debbie Gabriel for the updates and then invited comments and questions from Committee members with the following raised:

The Committee noted that the average time taken to place a child entering care had increased from 180 days the previous year to 208 days in the reporting period, and asked if there was any insight into why that was. Debbie Gabriel advised that the cohort size was small, so delays with only a few children, as a result of care proceedings or finding a placement for children with complex needs for example, could skew the average number of days. She advised that, when placing a child, the focus was about the particular child and their needs, and it was important to take the time to get that right. She added that the average number of days was still in line with the London average and only slightly outside of the national average.

The Committee asked whether it was easier to find people who wanted to adopt in London compared to other areas of the country. Debbie Gabriel confirmed that there was a steady stream of adopters coming to the attention of Adopt London West, which was not the case nationally and there were parts of the country struggling to attract adopters. The sufficiency issue had not yet affected London, but where Adopt London West were not able to place a child then there was a need to look across the country for adopters which caused delays. Two separate children had recently been placed in Devon. She added that Adopt London West would always place children with the best adopters for their particular needs.

The Committee asked about progress on the Black Adoption Project. Debbie Gabriel stated that the project had been busy with activity outlined in the annual report. There had been a need for some additional funding for a particular initiative which had now been secured and committed, and a Project Manager was leading on several workstreams for the project. A young people’s group was also up and running. Adopt London would be launching phase 2 of the project soon which included a Black Education Programme that young people had specifically asked for. She added that the ‘let’s talk about adoption’ group for Black adopters was going very well and entirely facilitated by Black adopters affiliated with the project. In terms of the project’s impact, she explained that it was a long-term change so it would take time to see the effects of the activity, but there was a lot of interest already. A Meet The Adopters event for Black adopters had recently been ran which had seen all spaces filled for that event.

In relation to the reduction in funding for the Adoption Special Guardianship Support Fund, the Committee asked how Adopt London West was dealing with that. Debbie Gabriel confirmed it had been challenging but there was a lot of lobbying of central government around that. Families were relieved that the government had announced a public consultation about the future of the fund, due to go live in the new year, that they could put their voice to. Adopter peer support groups across the country were also lobbying. In terms of managing without that funding, she advised that some activity could be delivered through the core offer, but many therapeutic parenting programmes were seeing a dip in take-up because without that fund adopters were now required to fund the course through their allowances. As a result, many families were declining those courses and using funds for individual therapy. At the same time, the government had also removed the £2.5k grant for specialist assessments, which was also having an impact on families. The Committee asked for the public consultation information to be shared with members.

Noting that the report detailed a fall in webpage views compared to an increase in social media following, the Committee asked whether social media was the right platform for promotion. They highlighted that social media might receive more followers but if that did not translate to clicks through then it was unlikely to be increasing interest in adoption. As such, they asked whether Adopt London West was promoting adoption in the right places and to the right audiences. They added that LinkedIn and TikTok were also good platforms to spread the message. Debbie Gabriel agreed this was a fair challenge and agreed to get feedback from the Communications and Marketing Team. In terms of feedback on promotion, she advised that feedback did suggest that the website was helpful, particularly blogs and articles which made people want to be a part of the Adopt London West partnership. Adopt London West continually improved and evolved the website to ensure it was appropriate for its aims so that anyone affected by adoption could find the website useful to them.

In response to some of the queries raised during the discussion, Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director for Children, Young People and Schools, Brent Council) assured the Committee that there was appropriate challenge of Adopt London West performance overall. He and Palvinder Kudhail (Director of Early Help and Social Care, Brent Council) were members of the Adopt London West Partnership Board where that performance was scrutinised.

As no further issues were raised, the Committee resolved to note the report.