HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
CORPORATE PARENTING GROUPTuesday 15 November 2005 at 10.00 am /
Agenda Item No:
3Adoption Agency Annual Report 2004/05
Report of the Director of Children Schools and Families
Author: Brenda Simmonds Head of Adoption Service
Tel. No. 01992 556931
Executive Member: Jane Pitman
1. Purpose of the Report
a) To present a report concerning the activity of the Adoption Agency.
b) To inform members of national developments in adoption and the implications for Hertfordshire County Council.
2. Summary
The report summarises the statutory Adoption Agency responsibilities, and the organization of Hertfordshire County Council’s adoption service. It also describes in some detail the activity and performance of the Adoption Agency for 2004/05, the national developments to which the authority must respond and the adoption service work programme for 2005/6.
3. Conclusion
The Adoption Service has seen a considerable increase in demand over the last year in relation to new statutory duties and the increasing profile of adoption support. Whilst there was a shortfall in adopter recruitment, this has subsequently improved with evidence that targets will be met in 2005/06. Recruitment for specific children has also improved and an overall performance improvement is anticipated for 2005/06. Service user participation has developed in 2004/05 on which the service continues to build. A key challenge is the implementation of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and the likely increase in demand is as yet unquantifiable. The first triennial adoption service inspection takes place in January 2006.
4. Adoption Agency Responsibilities
4.1 Section 3 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, which follows on from the Adoption Act 1976 , makes it a duty of every local authority to establish and maintain in it’s area an adoption service designed to meet the needs of children, their birth parents or guardians and those who may adopt a child.
4.2 Very few babies are placed for adoption. The children who become available for adoption have increasingly very complex care histories, which in the majority of cases has resulted in compulsory removal from their birth families and contested Care Proceedings under Section 31 of the Children Act 1989. These children are deemed to be suffering significant harm as a result of abuse or neglect in their birth families and come to adoption placements with varying degrees of emotional damage. Some have complex physical or learning difficulties.
4.3 When children cannot live with their birth families, the Local Authority has a duty to provide them, where appropriate, with a permanent family home. An Adoption Order is the most legally secure order that a court can make. It is irrevocable and severs the parental responsibility of the birth parents. The Adoption and Children Act 2002 received Royal Assent in November 2002 and is due to be fully implemented on the 30th December 2005. the government has further developed their vision that adoption continues to provide an important service for children, offering positive and beneficial outcomes. Furthermore, adoption is recognized as providing children with a unique opportunity for a fresh start as permanent members of new families, enjoying the sense of security and well-being so far denied them in their young lives.
4.4 Whilst the Local Authority has a duty to make all reasonable efforts to rehabilitate the child with his or her family, it is important to strike the right balance between planning for rehabilitation and planning for permanence outside the family. Time is not on the child’s side and therefore efforts to rehabilitate a child should be realistic and mindful of the child’s timescale. Where it is clear that a child cannot be returned to their birth family, decisions about placing children with permanent families should be taken as a matter of priority.
5. Hertfordshire County Council’s Adoption Service
The Adoption Service is managed by the Head of Adoption Service and comprises two Adoption Teams, East and West, each covering two former Quadrant areas. Each team is staffed by 1 FTE manager, 6.45 FTE adoption social workers and 2.48 admin assistants. A family finding team, dedicated to finding placements for hard to place children, has been created and consists of 0.5 FTE manager (temporary) three FTE home finding social workers and 1 FTE professional assistant, taking work across the whole county.
The Adoption Agency is administered by the Adoption Panel administrator, directly managed by Head of Adoption Service and based at County Hall.
In addition, an Adoption Support Service providing statutory adoption support is situated at the Parkway site taking referrals for the whole of the county and staffed by 1 FTE manager, 5 FTE social workers and 1 FTE administrative support.
In total, there are 36.76 FTE staff in total for the adoption service. The budget consists of £1,311,745 indirect spend (staffing), £1,350,422 direct spend (principally adoption and residence allowances and interagency payments) making a total £2,854,027. Income from intercountry adoption in 2004/05 was £11,554.
The adoption service provides the following core services in accordance with National Adoption and National Minimum Standards: -
(a) Recruitment, assessment, training and support of adopters, ensuring that the County Council meets the National Standards and targets set within the Performance Assessment Framework and Quality Protects
(b) Arrangements for selection and matching children with adopters
(c) Provision of an adoption support service pre- and post-adoption
(d) Provision of financial support in relation to adoption and from January 2006 Special Guardianship Orders.
(e) Provision of an overseas adoption service
(f) Management of statutory adoption panels
(g) Statutory assessment, supervision and provision of court reports in step-parent and non-agency adoptions
(h) Advising officers and members on all aspects of service provision and relevant legislation
6. Adoption Agency Activity:
The number of children on referral to the adoption teams as of the 31st of March 2005 was over 160. At any one time at least half of these children are in the very early stages of adoption or contingency planning and therefore not available for placement until a court has made a care order in which the plan for adoption has been endorsed.
The number of children presented to panel for best interests decisions decreased slightly in 2004/5 and children presented for adoption are still predominantly under 5 years of age. However there has been an increase in the number of placements secured for the over 5’s. In total 30% of the children placed are between 5 and 11 years. It is hoped to further increase the percentage for this particular age group by a specific recruitment campaign in 2005/6. In particular our “ children evenings” which commenced in 2004/05 are specifically aimed at increasing the number of specific matches with Hertfordshire families and attracting adopters for harder to place children.
Table 1 below summarises the key adoption agency activity for the last 5 years.
March 2001 / March 2002 / March 2003 /March
2004 / March 2005Adoption in best interests decisions / 64 / 58 / 50 / 75 / 66
Children matched with adopters / 49 / 56 / 54 / 56 / 49
Adopters approved / 46 / 58 / 51 / 45 / 45
6.4 The approval of 45 adopters to March 2005 represents a significant shortfall against a target of 60 and has been a consequence of staffing vacancies in the adoption teams, reducing the capacity for completing adoption assessments by 10 or more. An additional factor has been the unusually high number of partially completed assessments in which adopters have withdrawn for personal reasons (pregnancy, ill health and other personal issues).
6.5 However, improved recruitment and family finding activity has already impacted in 2005/06. From November 2004 onwards, therefore we have seen a doubling of enquiries, increased attendance at open evenings and sustained interest in our children’s evenings. To date in 2005/06 we have approved 32 adoptive families with a further 28 scheduled to be completed by 31st March 2006. This will achieve the target of 60 families. In addition, there are currently 16 Hertfordshire approved adopters awaiting formal matches with children, although at least six of these have provisional matches.
6.6 A key performance indicator, within the Annual Performance Assessment of local authorities is the number of adoptions for each year to 31st March expressed as a percentage of the number of children who have been looked after children for more than 6 months on that date. Table 2 below sets out performance on this indicator over the last 5 years.
March 2001 / March 2002 / March 2003 / March 2003 / March 2004Number of adoption orders / 41 / 41 / 50 / 66 / 47
As % of LAC / 5% / 7% / 5.4% / 7.6% / 5.4%
6.7 At 1st April 2005 there were 54 children in adoption placements awaiting Adoption Order. A decision to make an adoption application is not generally made until the second statutory review at 4 months from placement, to ensure that the placement is secure before proceeding. The Adoption Agency reviews the progress of all cases awaiting adoption and the Adoption Standards Senior Practitioners work closely with colleagues to avoid unnecessary delay.
6.8 While the figures for Adoption Orders for 2004/5 are disappointing it also needs to be acknowledged that there are a greater number of children placed but not adopted and therefore the figures should rise again for 2005/6. Additionally, 31 new residence allowances were instigated in 2004/5 and these generally related to children who are placed permanently with relatives as a direct alternative to being in care or being adopted. It is recognized that a high number of residence allowances is likely to correspond to a lower number of adoption orders.
6.9 In future, the Special Guardianship Order, due to be implemented from 30th December 2005, will be an alternative to residence and Adoption Orders in many cases. However, it will feature in the Performance Assessment framework alongside adoption, creating a more holistic picture of the authority’s performance on permanent placements. An initial investigation suggests that there are approximately 15 children in the looked after system for whom this order may be appropriate.
6.10 The Performance Assessment Framework and National Adoption Standards also require local authorities to report on timescales for each stage of the adoption process. Currently, Hertfordshire’s performance shows an average timescale from ‘looked after’ to Adoption Order of 33.8 months at 31st March 2005. The national figure is 33 months. While this figure marginally exceeds the national figure it is expected that this timescale may well increase as a result of successful recruitment of adopters for children with more special needs. However, we aim to improve timescales from children first becoming looked after to a decision of adoption in best interests by closer monitoring and tracking of adoption planning.
6.11 Hertfordshire placed 87.2% of children for adoption in the year to April 2004 within 12 months of their best interest decision. This is better than the national average of 81%. However, in Hertfordshire, 70% of the children adopted in 2003/04 were under 5 years old compared with the national trend of 66%. Increasing the number of older children placed for adoption will inevitably increase this timescale more in line with the national average.
6.12 The adoption teams have been particularly active in supporting over 54 families awaiting their final court hearing. A further 25 children are being supported post Adoption Order for a further 12 months before being referred to the adoption support team. With the increasing complexity of adoption placements, the demands on staff time have also increased.
6.13 Historically, referrals for step-parent adoptions are much higher in East and North Herts. The team’s completed15 step-parent assessments with a further 15 currently waiting for assessments. From 30th December 2005, the Adoption and Children Act will no longer require the birth parent to adopt their own child and this will change the nature of this work. We do not however know whether it will impact on volume. In addition, the teams prepared four further non-agency adoption reports for the court. The new Adoption Support Regulations 2005 will entitle for the first time from September 2005, step-parent and non agency adoptions to an assessment for adoption support services.
6.14 In 2001, an additional performance indicator was introduced to measure disruptions in adoption placements against a national baseline figure of 92% of placements for adoption resulting in an adoption order. This has been taken as the quality standard against which the drive to increase adoption should be measured. Historically, Hertfordshire has had very few disruptions prior to adoption order, on average around 2 per annum. In 2004/5 there were 2 disruptions at the introduction stage prior to placement and both of these children have subsequently been placed. A placement of 2 siblings disrupted prior to adoption order and these children are now placed in their extended family. Whilst this is concerning, the disruption rate nevertheless remains within the national benchmark.
6.15 Post adoption support has been a huge growth area over the last two years. The Adoption Support Team is currently supporting 567 indirect post-box contact arrangements, rising by around 50 per annum and 10 direct contact arrangements. There have been 199 enquiries about access to adoption records this year an increase of 22 %. Intermediary work between birth relatives and adult adoptees is a particular growth area arising from the new Adoption and Children Act.