Agenda item

This report provides a briefing on the progress and activity of Adopt London West, adoption performance data, and how good outcomes are being achieved for children.

Amana Gordon (Operational Director, Children and Young Peoples Service) and Debbie Gabriel (Adopt London West) attended to present the item on the progress and activity of Adopt London West including performance data and how good outcomes were being achieved for children. They were joined by adoptive parent Sonal Thakrar who spoke about her experiences of the process.

Debbie Gabriel informed members that the Adopt London West (ALW) Regional Adoption Agency became operational on 1 September 2019 with a formal launch in October 2019. A comprehensive partnership agreement forms the basis of the ongoing partnership arrangements. H&F’s Director of Children’s Services sits on the partnership board which provides oversight to ensure that the shared service is appropriately scrutinised and supported to deliver improved outcomes for children and adopters.

SonalThakrar, a newly adoptive parent, addressed the Committee to discuss her experiences of adopting through Adopt London West. She spoke about her initial fears of prejudice, being in a same-sex, ethnic minority couple – but those fears were quickly allayed, and she found the service to be warm and inviting, saying they understood inclusion and embraced adopters from diverse backgrounds. Communication was clear and consistent. She appreciated the mentoring made available from other same-sex couples who had adopted from ethnic minorities. She highlighted the high-quality training and said she benefitted from access to the national training network. She felt well supported by social workers through the matching process, considered to be the hardest part of adoption. And the level of support remained high even when services went remote.

The Chair asked about post-adoption support and if there were things that stood out that others should take on board. Sonal Thakrar said the mentoring and checking-in were both vital. Adoption was a complex, challenging process so education and discussion around the issues faced by first-time adopters was important. Open conversations were valuable. She said contact was well managed and good partnerships were made with health visitors. She was helped to apply to an adoption support fund for play therapy. She felt it was a ‘total care package’ and felt ‘emotionally held’ at a critical time.

The Chair asked what Sonal would change about the process if she could. Sonal Thakrar said ALW should promote best practices to other local authorities. She added that the time from match to placement was a real challenge outside of ALW.

The Chair asked Debbie Gabriel about the Black adoption project at ALW – how adopters were recruited and how successful it had been. Debbie Gabriel said there had been lots of enquiries – the challenge was understanding what adopters have to offer. The overall number of adoptions and children placed for adoption was falling so the challenge was finding the right families. Amana Gordon said the Council wanted a diverse range of carers who were not just a cultural match but also met the needs of the children.

Councillor Mark Loveday asked Sonal what, if anything, she would change about ALW. Sonal Thakrar said she had a great experience with the organisation.

Councillor Loveday asked for clarification on the split of organisational responsibilities between adopters and children. Debbie Gabriel said ALW had primary responsibility for family finding for the four partner authorities.

Councillor Loveday asked for rough figures for placing children with local adopters. Debbie Gabriel said the goal was to place all of the children in London. Currently they were using a lot of inter-agency placements. Due to the circumstances of the children coming through the system they were often difficult to match. She said she could provide figures on the number of children placed with adopters from H&F after the meeting.

ACTION: Debbie Gabriel / Amana Gordon

Amana Gordon noted that performance wasn’t currently where the service wanted it to be regarding local adoptions so this year the team were focused on recruitment so there were enough adopters waiting when children come through in future years. Councillor Loveday said it would be useful for future reports on this to set out the KPIs and benchmarks for the service.

ACTION: Debbie Gabriel / Amana Gordon

Nadia Taylor asked if most of the children put up for adoption were coming through the care system or elsewhere. Debbie Gabriel said only a small minority (4 last year) were ‘relinquished babies’ and the majority came from court decisions.

The Chair thanked Amana Gordon, Debbie Gabriel, and Sonal Thakrar for sharing her experiences of the process.

RESOLVED

The Committee reviewed, commented on, and questioned the contents of the report. This is to provide evidence that the management of the adoption service is being monitored and challenged to promote good outcomes for children in line with standard 25.6 of the Adoption National Minimum Standards (2014).