Decision details

To seek approval for Sefton MBC to join with Knowsley, Liverpool and Wirral to form a Regional Adoption Agency in line with the Education and Adoption act 2016. The development of the Regional Adoption Agency will mean that Sefton Council  will no longer  operate as an adoption agency.  The impact for local citizens will be minimized through a hub and spoke model with a regional hub base and a flexible spoke that will enable continued presence of the adoption service in each of the four local authority areas. The regionalisation of adoption is intended to reduce inefficiencies and the duplication of effort and create a system that better supports children whose best interests are served by adoption.

The Cabinet considered the report of the Director of Social Care and Health which provided details of the supporting information behind the national drive to create Regional Adoption Agencies across England and the proposed model for the Merseyside Regional Adoption Agency across Knowsley, Wirral, Sefton and Liverpool.

Members of the Cabinet sought clarification that the proposals set out in the report were identical to those highlighted to them at a previous informal meeting. The Head of Children’s Social Care advised that the appropriate Council staff would be seconded the Merseyside Regional Adoption Agency under the shadow arrangements and be based at Halewood but they would be expected to come back and work within the Sefton area and hold events within Sefton.

Decision Made: That

(1)       subject to the Director of Social Care and Health submitting a further report to the Cabinet meeting on 7 September 2017, clarifying the level of service provision within the Sefton, approval be given the proposed model for the Knowsley, Wirral, Sefton and Liverpool Regional Adoption Agency (RAA), including the recommendation that local authority staff are seconded into the RAA;

(2)       the intention for the new model to move into shadow arrangements during the third quarter of 2017 and go live in January 2018 be noted; and

(3)       approval be given to the proposal to use the name AIM (Adoption in Merseyside) as the brand for the RAA going forward.

Reasons for Decision:

In June 2015, the Department for Education (DfE) published a White Paper that proposed local authorities should create Regional Agencies by 2020 (Regionalising Adoption- June 2015). The White Paper set out an expectation that local authorities should form firm proposals, in partnership with their voluntary partners, to align adoption services into a Regional Adoption Agency (RAA). The Government commitment to this approach was developed further in the Education and Adoption Act 2016 which give the government the power to direct a local authority to enter into a RAA if it has not done so by the end of 2017

Clarification was sought on the level of service provision to be provided under the shadow arrangements for the RRA.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

None.