To approve a decision that Herefordshire join Adoption Central England (ACE) regional adoption agency (RAA) jointly with Warwickshire, Solihull, Coventry and Worcestershire local authorities in accordance with central government expectation that all local authorities are part of a RAA by 2020.

That:

(a) Herefordshire adoption service joins Adoption Central England (ACE) regional adoption agency with effect from 1 July 2019; and

(b) the Director of Children and Families be authorised to take all operational decisions necessary to complete the partnership and hosting legal agreements with ACE.

1.    Do nothing. The Department for Education published ‘Regionalising adoption’ in June 2015 and ‘Adoption: A vision for change’ in March 2016, outlining plans to radically redesign the whole adoption system - the structures, systems and workforce. In order to deliver their vision new service models were proposed, delivered through Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) and voluntary adoption agencies (VAAs) working together to deliver adoption services. All councils are required to be part of a RAA, or to have delegated their adoption functions to a RAA by 2020. If we do not join an RAA the available pool of adopters available to match children from Herefordshire with is likely to reduce resulting in potential delay for children and financial and reputational risk for the council.

2.    Join a different RAA. Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire are both part of Adoption West RAA. It is not proposed that we join this RAA as these counties are not part of the West Midlands region and increasingly children’s social care are working collaboratively with other authorities in the region on a range of issues. Powys and Monmouthshire are both in Wales which operates a different legal framework to England. Shropshire are part of a joint service with Telford and Wrekin, Stoke and Staffordshire councils. It could be an option to apply to join this RAA however Herefordshire has worked closely with Worcestershire for many years and demographics are more similar to the ACE councils.