Agenda item

Report of the Interim Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services

Recommendations:-

1.    That the business case be endorsed to enable the Council to work towards a regionalised model of adoption services in accordance with the Department for Education’s expectations.

Consideration was given to a report which sought endorsement of a business case to enable the authority to work towards a regionalised model of adoption services across South Yorkshire.

It was reported that in June 2015 the government had required local authorities to work towards Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) model by 2020. In doing so, there was an expectation that local authorities would begin planning, developing and working with partners to shape their RAA.  The government’s commitment to this approach was such that the Education and Adoption Act 2016 gave power to the government to direct a local authority to enter into a RAA (or a partnership with a Voluntary Adoption Agency) if they deemed that there was insufficient evidence of engagement in the process. Locally, Rotherham MBC had been a member of the project group to develop the South Yorkshire Regional Adoption Agency alongside Sheffield City Council, Doncaster Children’s Services Trust and Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council since the government directive.

It was noted that the key principle behind the regionalisation of adoption services was that, on a national level, children were waiting far too long to be matched and placed with their adoptive families. By pooling resources, adoption agencies would be more likely to increase the choice of prospective adopters and therefore identify matches more quickly and thus reduce the time that these children remained looked after in the care of the local authority. As a result the driving force for the initiative was very much to improve the outcomes for looked after children with a permanence plan of adoption. Rotherham MBC had remained significantly involved in the development of the Business Case throughout and from the start of the process set down three essential criteria as a pre-condition for signing up to it, namely:

·         No reduced performance

·         No increased costs

·         No negative impact on the Terms and Conditions of our employees

Members were advised that It is accepted that the Business Case presented came the closest to meeting each of the essential criteria. In the event of Cabinet’s endorsement, the Council would remain heavily involved in order to continue to shape the model to ensure it would best meet the needs of children and families in Rotherham. It also has to be recognised that 75% of local authorities have already implemented a regional model of adoption.

The report noted that the Secretary of State had retained through the legislation the right to impose a model on any local authority they deemed not to be progressing the regionalisation agenda with sufficient pace and had set April 2020 as a deadline for local authorities to have an agreed model in place.

Resolved:-

That the business case be endorsed to enable the Council to work towards a regionalised model of adoption services in accordance with the Department for Education’s expectations.