Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Children’s Social Care

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Children’s Social Care that provided part of the monitoring of the Sefton Adoption Service required under the Local Authority Adoption Service Regulations 2003 and Adoption Minimum Standards 2011. The report provided details of adoption activity from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017. The report indicated that almost all children placed for adoption had been placed from public care. It was a challenging task for local authorities and the courts to analytically conclude that parents could not safely parent their child or children. Adoption was a last resort for children after all other options had been completely exhausted and minimum delay was crucial in securing permanence for children.

The report indicated that attachment and neuroscience research had been key in identifying that early permanence provides better outcomes for children. Due to their previous experiences of trauma, abuse, broken attachments and separation, children placed for adoption often had greater difficulties in managing their emotions, behaviours and feeling safe in relationships. Adoptive parents needed to be exceptional parents and provide therapeutic parenting that over time would help children heal from trauma. As an Adoption Agency the Council had a duty to find the right families for children, families who had fully evidenced their motivation, emotional resilience, adoptive parenting capacity and openness / reflection of their own attachment history. In recent years the Government had made significant policy and legislative changes to promote children leaving the looked after system to the emotional and legal security that adoption provided. It was now expected that 80% of care proceedings would be completed within 26 weeks. The younger a child was on placement, the better chances of successful adoption. This led to the “Fostering to Adopt” initiative that had allowed children to be placed in their potential place of permanence with approved adopters who were temporarily approved as foster carers. This route to adoption promoted early attachment and minimised the disruption of moves for children. The Adoption Scorecard was introduced in May 2012 in order to compare, monitor and improve Local Authorities’ performance against specific timescale measures. Significant changes had also been made relating to the recruitment and assessment process for prospective adopters which reflected a speedier process. These changes were published as Statutory Guidance. The Sefton Adoption Service Annual Report 2016-17 was attached to the report as an appendix and detailed Sefton’s progress in the last year.

RESOLVED: That:

(1)       the content of Sefton`s Adoption Service Annual Report 2016 – 2017 be noted; and

(2)       Officers be congratulated on the proactive way in which the “Family/Friend Preparation Training” had been developed and would be utilised on a regional basis.