Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Children’s Social Work and Child Protection (CS/17/17) on the implementation of a Regional Adoption Agency and shared, joint Adoption Panels, attached.   

(Councillors Connett, Julian, Owen and Westlake attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Head of Children’s Social Work and Child Protection (CSC/17/17) on the creation of a Regional Adoption Agency as required by the Education and Adoption Act 2016 and on the proposed establishment of Joint Adoption Panels.

The Government was of the view that the structural change required by statute would improve the process for children and adopters leading to increased numbers of children being adopted, a better experience for adopters and improved timeliness overall. The Regional Adoption Agency programme was expected to deliver consistently good and innovative adoption practice that would ensure improved life chances for children.

The County Council was part of the existing Adopt South West Partnership (one of 19 groupings of local authorities and voluntary sector adoption agencies working on the regionalisation agenda nationally)  which included  Plymouth, Torbay and Somerset Council’s and Barnardo’s and Families for Children, originally established as a co-operative regional adoption partnership.

The Head of Service’s Report outlined the outcome of the consideration of each of the four models for a Regional Adoption Agency prescribed by the Department for Education and the reasoning for now recommending the endorsement of the interim option for a local authority single host on behalf of a number of local authorities and the subsequent preparation of a full, detailed, business case addressing all relevant issues identified in the Report and referred to at the meeting. This would, it was felt, achieve the integration of the four local authority adoption services into one best practice model, maintaining the current partnerships which had been established in the delivery of Adopt South West.

The Head of Service’s Report also indicated that, as part of the early work on improving regional adoption practice, the four Local Authorities involved had also recommended the establishment of Joint Adoption Panels which it was felt would similarly improve the process, be more effective and increase the numbers of children achieving permanency through adoption.

The Report incorporated an assessment of the benefits and risks of the proposals now submitted as a means of the Cabinet, in so doing, having regard to the responsibilities placed upon it in exercising its Public Sector Equality Duty, noting the interim measures for funding formula and benefits distribution. The assessment recognised the beneficial impacts of the proposals; no unmanageable impacts having been identified.

The matter having been debated and the options and/or alternatives and other relevant factors set out in the Head of Service’s Report and/or referred to above having been considered:

It was MOVED by Councillor McInnes, SECONDED by Councillor Hart, and

RESOLVED

(a)that a Local Authority single hosted solution (LASH) be agreed as the interim operating model for the Regional Adoption Agency;

(b) that the County Council agree to act as the single LA host for the interim Regional Adoption Agency during the transition period to final Regional Adoption Agency model, ending no  ...  view the full minutes text for item 181