To review adoption service performance and approve related documents.

The cabinet member for young people and children’s wellbeing introduced the report. He noted that there were good results highlighted in the report and drew particular attention to the upcoming change to regional adoption agencies. Herefordshire Council was in discussion about joining Adopt Central England (ACE) a combined service with Warwickshire, Coventry, Solihull and Worcestershire. A report on this would be presented to cabinet in due course but it was important to bear in mind that this change would have ramifications for the service.

The head of LAC confirmed that this was a statutory annual report which outlined the functions of the adoption service and the establishment and performance of the adoption team in 2016-17. The adoption service was performing well, with a stable and experience workforce. Some of the key performance indicators in the report related to the time taken for children to be placed for adoption after they became looked after and the time taken to match children with adopters once permission to place was granted. There was a three year average rolling target which was reducing year on year. The head of LAC noted that the council had made progress but was still above the target. She explained that this was partly due to circumstances such as a sibling group who were in the system for a long time before the right placement for them was found.

The head of LAC noted some of the key achievements of the service in 2016-17:

·         placement of some older children and sibling groups which was more challenging;

·         18 children were placed for adoption;

·         a further 24 placement orders were granted;

·         3 very small babies were placed in fostering to adopt places, this was an area the service was seeking to expand on in 2017-18; and

·         the service had worked with adopters and therapeutic services to access the adoption support fund and secure over £25,000 worth of grants.

Priorities for 2017-18 included acceptance into the ACE regional agency and improving the timeliness of children being placed with adopters and adoption orders being achieved.

The leader of the council asked how long a child had to wait on average to be placed for adoption. The head of LAC explained that the report set out the three year average for children waiting less than 16 months between becoming looked after to moving in with their adoptive family. The three year average at 2016-17 was 56% compared to an England average of 55%. The actual number of days for each child varied greatly depending on the circumstances.

Groups leaders were invited to give the views of their group.

The leader of the green group asked if being part of a regional adoption agency would increase the movement of children out of the county and see other children move into the county.

The head of LAC explained that the council already regularly sold and bought adoption placements as it was not always appropriate for children to be adopted in the area of their birth. It was also sometimes necessary to look across a wider area to find adopters for children of particular cultural or ethnic backgrounds or those with complex needs. It was likely that working as part of a regional agency would see more children would be placed outside the county but this was seen as a positive thing as it would indicate increased access to suitable adopters.

The leader of the Liberal Democrat group asked if the figures were typical for a county like Herefordshire and if the council was falling further behind due to having more children identified for adoption during the year than were placed with adopters.

The assistant director safeguarding and early help explained that being adopted meant having an adoption order granted by the court and that the order was usually made some 3-6 months after being placed with an adopter. When a child was identified as needing a plan for adoption the courts could take up to 6 months to make a placement order. Once that was in place the council could place the child with the adopters. The assistant director stated that the council did not generally struggle to recruit adopters but the length of time for the courts to make decisions was an issue.

It was resolved that:

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

(b)  that the statement of purpose attached at appendix b to this report be approved; and

(c)  that the children’s guides attached at appendix c to this report be approved.