To review Adoption and Fostering Services performance and approve related documents.

The National Minimum Standards are issued by the Secretary of State under the Care Standards Act 2000 and detail the conduct and standards required for Adoption and Fostering Services and as such are taken into account during inspections by Ofsted.

Standard state that the executive side of the local authority:

·         receive written reports on the management, outcomes and financial state of the agency

·         monitor the management and outcomes of the service in order to satisfy themselves that the agency is effective and is achieving good outcomes for children and/or service users;

·         satisfies itself that the agency is complying with the conditions of registration; and

·         the executive formally approves the statement of purpose and reviews them at least annually.

That:

(a)  the performance of the adoption service as outlined at appendix 1 to this report be reviewed, any risks to achievement of objectives noted and relevant mitigating actions approved;

(b)  the statement of purpose for the adoption service (appendix 2) be approved;

(c)  the performance of the fostering service as outlined at appendix 3 to this report be reviewed, any risks to achievement of objectives noted and relevant mitigating actions approved;

(d)  the statement of purpose for the fostering service (appendix 4) be approved; and

(e)  approve the executive’s response to the recommendations of the children and young peoples’ scrutiny committee as per appendix 5.

Under the National Minimum Standards for Adoption 2014 and Fostering 2011 (NMS), Cabinet should receive updates on the management, outcomes and financial state of Herefordshire Council’s adoption and fostering services; it is open to Cabinet to identify additional or alternative actions to improve performance, but in doing so regard must be had to the resource implications of additional actions.