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 a briefing on adoption performance data for the reporting period, progress and activity of Adopt London West (ALW) and outcomes being achieved for children. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following key points:

• 34 children had been placed by ALW within the year, which was the highest number of placements made since the establishment of ALW.
• 7 Brent children had been placed for adoption in the reporting year, making the overall placement numbers for Brent 12.
• Performance remained strong in relation to the timescales children were placed in, but often the care proceedings took a long time and did lead to some delays.
• 23 adopters had been approved in the reporting year, making it more likely that children could be placed with in-house adopters.
• The report detailed the support offer for families within ALW, including a new friendship group for children, a transition to adulthood group for 18-24 year olds, and a parent and child toddler group. The aim was to have spaces for children right across their age range to ensure there were opportunities for them to be with peers that may have had similar experiences to them.
• ALW had secured additional grant funding for a youth worker to develop those young person spaces, and additional funding to develop the multi-disciplinary team to ensure a clinical team was in place to support social workers.
• A new table had been included in the report which provided a comparison of ALW Brent’s performance against England and statistical neighbours.

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

The Committee asked whether there were any reflections on the advantages and challenges of moving to a regional model now that ALW was established. Debbie Gabriel advised that the opportunities were around being able to do more across the partnership with additional funding, meaning more services could be developed than previous. The challenges were around connection with local expertise and communities, but she felt that ALW’s relationship with Brent was strong from the outset which had helped with that. Many individuals from Brent’s adoption service had transferred to ALW, retaining that knowledge and those relationships, and ALW staff were always invited to the Brent staff forums to maintain that connection.

Noting the performance on length of time to place a child for adoption, the Committee asked whether there was any way to improve those times even more. Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) advised that the time taken to place a child was case by case, with some placements made more quickly, but others taking time where family members needed assessments, or there were international elements, with the courts less willing to make a decision for adoption where there were other alternatives. The complexity of the case and the child’s particular needs may also impact the length of time to in order to undertake appropriate family finding.

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