CHILDREN’S PLACEMENTS AND SPECIALIST SERVICES

ADOPTION SERVICE STATEMENT OF PURPOSE– 2015 / 2016

Bexley Council acts as an Adoption Agency to provide adoption services as required under the Adoption and Children Act 2002, the Adoption Agencies Regulations and Guidance 2013 and the Adoption National Minimum Standards (Care Standards Act 2000).

The Adoption Service ‘Statement of Purpose’ sets out the aims and objectives of the Adoption Services provided by Bexley Social Care Services.

The ‘Statement of Purpose’ is a requirement under the Adoption Agency Regulations (England) 2003, the National Minimum Standards for Adoption, and the Care Standards Act 2000.

It is reviewed annually and presented to the Corporate Parenting Committee of the London Borough of Bexley.

The Adoption Service will also be delivered in line with thethe following law, regulation and guidance:

Adoption Agencies Regulations (2005 & 2011)

Adoption & Children Act (2002)

The Children and Adoption Act (2006) and associated regulations.

Adoption Statutory Guidance (2013)

Adoption National Minimum Standards (updated/re-issued 25th July 2014)

The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations (2010)

Care Planning, Placement and Care Review and Fostering Services (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (2013)

Mission Statement

Bexley Council’s Adoption Service believes that every child has the right to a permanent, secure and loving family which embraces their individual needs and differences, including reflecting and/or supporting their culture and identity.

1.Aims of the Service

Bexley endorses the view that children should be brought up in their own birth family where possible.

If children are unable to live with their birth parents or within their wider family, or connected persons, our purpose is to provide good quality alternative permanent carers for children and young people,whoprovide a loving home, meet their individual needs, value diversity and promotethe positive outcomes considered essential to well-beingin childhood and later life.

These outcomes are :

  • Being Healthy
  • Safeguarding Children so they remain Safe & Secure
  • Helping Children achieve and enjoy what they do
  • Helping Children make a positive contribution
  • Helping Children achieve economically

Our Values are that:

• The child’s welfare, safety and needs are at the centre of the adoption process.

• Adopted children should have an enjoyable childhood, and benefit from excellent parenting and education, enjoying a wide range of opportunities to develop their talents and skills leading to a successful adult life.

• Children are entitled to grow up as part of a loving family that can meet their developmental needs during childhood and beyond.

• Children’s wishes and feelings are important and will be actively sought and fully taken into account at all stages of the adoption process.

• Delays should be avoided as they can have a severe impact on the health and development of the children waiting to be adopted.

• A sense of identity is important to a child’s well-being. To help children develop this, their ethnic origin, cultural background, religion, language and sexuality need to be properly recognised and positively valued and promoted.

• The particular needs of disabled children and children with complex needs will be fully recognised and taken into account.

• Where a child cannot be cared for in a suitable manner in their own country, inter-country adoption may be considered as an alternative means of providing a permanent family.

• Children, birth parents/guardians and families and adoptive parents and families will be valued and respected.

The Adoption Service consistently endeavors to provide high quality services and support to individuals and families who wish to adopt or who have been affected by adoption in their lifetime. Our aim is to offer a transparent service that is open and available to all sections of the community.

The Adoption Service also Aims:

(a)To provide a service responsive to the needs of children, who require a permanent family placement, recruiting sufficient adopters to meet those needs.

(b)To provide a family that meets the requirement of the child’s care plan and wherever possible reflecting the child’s racial, cultural, religious and linguistic background. Also, wherever possible and particularly in relation to relinquished babies, we aim to ensure that the placement reflects the birth parent(s)’ wishes.

(c)To provide wherever possible an adoptive family committed to maintaining contact arrangements in line with the child’s needs and wishes and the arrangements set out by the court.

(d)To value adopters, providing them with a high standard of support and guidance through individual sessions with their link social worker, support groups and pre- and post-approval training.

(e)To be open and accessible, ensuring that practice complies in every respect with Bexley County Council’s Equal Opportunities policy.

(f)To promote current Government policy in achieving a wider, more diverse, pool of adoptive parents who are able to provide lifetime care for children who have been looked after.

(g)To ensure thorough assessment, approval and post approval support that adopters supports adoptive parents to provide a high standard of care in a safe and secure environment.

(h)To work in partnership with professionals, adopters and their children to maintain and support placements. To obtain and use service user views and experiences to develop services.

(i)To canvass the views of users through the use of focus groups, surveys and feedback building this information into the planning process in relation to service delivery.

(j)As a minimum standard, to promote indirect contact between birth parents and their children where this meets the needs of the child.

(k)Wherever possible and in the best interests of each child, to place siblings together.

(l)To offer information and advice on all adoption matters to the general public and other professionals.

(m)To offer a service to those wishing to adopt from overseas.

(n)To offer an intermediary service to birth families as outlined in the adoption support policy.

(o)To offer a service in line with access to records for adoptions both pre-commencement and post commencement.

(p)To support families post placement and post adoption with a range of services in line with Adoption Support Regulations.

(q)To offer, on request, an assessment of needs for adoption support.

(r)To provide support, including financial support, to those with adoption orders in accordance with assessed need and, in the case of financial support, assessed means.

(s)To administer the ongoing financial support scheme in respect of adoption.

(t)To offer a service to those step-parents wishing to adopt.

(u)To comply with the statutory regulations in relation to the Adoption Register.

(v)To provide reports for court in non-agency adoption applications.

2.Objectives

2.1To provide a pool of good quality adopters, reflecting the diverse needs ofchildren who need adoptive families.

2.2To educate and inform the local community of the benefits of adoption and the adoption process.

2.3To offer a comprehensive recruitment, training and support package to adopters.

2.4To provide a service that ensures the safety and well being of Looked After Children.

2.5To minimise potential risks by ensuring appropriate checks and reviews are in place and quality assurance is monitored through a comprehensive complaints process.

2.6To ensure that decisions are made with the 'best interests' of the child being paramount and that children’s plans are agreed by the Agency Decision Maker within timescales for the child.

2.7To ensure that the welfare of children placed for adoption is promoted in relation to the need for stability and to ensure that health and education needs are met.

2.8To work in partnership with all parties.

2.9To ensure that prospective adopters have access to all relevantinformation about the child and their history.

3. Management Structure

  • A Head of Placements Service, has overall responsibility for the Bexley Adoption Service, and leads the Children’s Placements and Specialist Services, of which the adoption service is part.
  • The Placement Service consists of 3Team Managers, a Team Manager with responsibility for Adoption,a Team Manager for Fostering and a Team Manager for Placements. The Placements Team Manager is responsible for Duty Service and also for commissioning fostering and residential care from providers other than the London Borough of Bexley. The Adoption Team Manager is responsible for both pre-adoption and post adoption services.
  • The Placement Service also has a Team Leader for Business Support and 4 administrative assistants who provide support to the Adoption Panel, including at any time a designated Adoption Panel Secretary.

4.Services Provided

The Service is structured to provide a service for any child needing a permanent placement and is committed to continuous improvement. The Service maintains close working relationships with the rest of the Children’s Social Care to ensure a positive working partnership, to promote adoption and to enhance the well-being of children being placed within a new family setting.

The adoption service includes:

Family Finding

Pre – Adoption (all adoption work pre-order).

Post Adoption (all Adoption Support Services).

Intermediary Services (for reuniting families).

Birth Records Counselling and Access to Adoption Records.

In relation to Adoption Services these incorporate:

Recruitment of adoptive parents, including Adopter Pre-Stage 1 Services, advice, written information, and Information Meetings

Adopter Stage 1 Support including checks and Preparatory training for Adopters

Assessments of Prospective Adopters, and completion of Prospective Adopter Reports.

Servicing the Bexley Council Adoption Panel, recruitment and training.

Liaison with the Medical Adviser to the Adoption Panel.

Facilitating and supporting adoption contact between adopted children and their birth families.

Fostering for Adoption and Concurrent Placements for Adoption where appropriate.

Convening and facilitating ‘Permanence Planning Meetings’ for looked after children.

Supporting the Matching of adoptive parents to children.

Supporting the process for the adoption of children relinquished for adoption.

Assessment and provision of adoption support services.Financial support, including legal costs for adoption applications and contested hearings.

Chairing Adoption Placement Planning meetings and reviews.

Providing information for the Adoption Register for England andWales.

Inter-Agency Agreements for adoption.

Membership of the South East Adoption Consortium.

Ensuring provision of an Adoption counselling service for birth families.

Provision of a Children’s Guide to Adoption

Birth Records Counselling.

Investigation of complaints about the Adoption Service provision.

Updating Bexley Council adoption service website.

Information in relation to the Adoption ‘Independent Review Mechanism’.

Inter-country Adoption Services (advice, counselling, assessment, training and support up to child placement in the UK currently provided under a Service Agreement by the ‘Inter-country Adoption Centre’).

Non-agency Adoption, counselling, advice, assessments and Court reports.

Assessments for Post-Adoption Support.

Providing support for Agency Decision Maker to decide on cases whether a child ‘Should be Placed for Adoption’.

4.1 Duty service

There is a dedicated adoptionservice available daily 9.00 am – 5.0 pm to answer enquires relating to all aspects of Bexley adoption services.

The Bexley Social Care, Emergency Duty Team can be accessed outside office hours.

Members of the public are able to receive appropriate advice regarding recruitment enquiries, non-agency adoption, birth records enquiries and special guardianship orders. Enquiries can also be made via or in response to our Bexley adoption web site.

Recruitment enquiries are also available through the freephone telephone number, and responded to by the admin team. Enquirers receive an information pack.

Adopters who are unable to gain immediate access to their social worker can also speak to their supervisor, the Adoption TeamManager or the duty social worker for advice and support.

4.2 Recruitment

The service has developed a recruitment strategy to reflect the changing needs of the looked after children population. This addresses issues relating to the recruitment of sufficient ‘new’ potential adopters, especially those from black and minority ethnic communities, and prospective adopters able to offer homes to older children and sibling groups.

  • Enquiries of interest about adoption come through our freephone or via email from our web page which are initially picked up by the admin team.
  • Basic information is taken by an admin assistant and then the enquirer will be passed to an adoption social worker if need be or an Information Pack is directly sent out.
  • Adopters are also advised of the National Gateway for Adoption, ‘First4Adoption’ and how to contact them including their website
  • Enquirers who decide that they want to take their enquiry further are asked to complete the Initial Enquiry Form which is then returned to the Bexley Adoption Team.
  • This is then allocated to an adoption social worker who will have an initial discussion with the enquirer to glean more information, and ensure they meet adoption national criteria for adoption for proceeding with adoption.
  • Within 2 weeks of the adoption Information Pack being sent out a telephone call will be made to the enquirer to assess continued levels of interest and where appropriate to invite to an adoption InformationMeeting to explain further the process and nature of adoption, and be available to answer adopter’s queries.
  • Where no bar to adopting, the adopters are offered an Initial Visit to discuss issues in more detail with a social worker, and the prospective adopters are invited to formally ‘Register their Interest’in adopting with Bexley.
  • Within 5 working days Bexley will decide on accepting the ‘Registration of Interest’ and the adopters will enter the adopter led Stage 1 process.
  • Exceptionally Bexley will decide that adopters proceed directly to Adopter Stage 2 - Full Assessment, for example where they are second time adopters or foster carers adopting a child in their care.
  • The Stage 1 process involves statutory checks being completed and the adopters will also attend the preparation group. The adopters will be asked to undertake some tasks, including preparing their chronology, ecomap and any other work identified at the Stage 1 Agreement meeting.
  • At the end of Stage 1 where adopters wish to continue, Bexley will confirm a decision on Progression to Stage 2 dependent of the outcome of Stage 1, checks and references.
  • If the outcome of Stage 1 is that the adopters will not be accepted for Stage 2, written reasons will be provided to the prospective adopter.

4.3 Assessment of Prospective Adopters

The Adoption Tam is responsible for undertaking adoption assessments and completing the ‘Prospective Adopters Report’ (PAR), in accordance with the two stage adopter assessment and approval process introduced by Adoption Agencies Regulations 2013.

The adoption serviceprovides a preparation training course for all applicants prior to undergoing a Stage 2 assessment, to give applicants further information, to prepare them for adoption, and to complement the assessment process. The preparation course covers the legal aspects of adoption, child development and attachment, loss and separation and an opportunity to meet with adopters with experience of the adoption process.

Once an applicant has been assessed, their case is presented to the Bexley Adoption Panel, to which applicants are invited.The Adoption Panel is independent of Bexley Council and makes a Recommendation to the Bexley Agency Decision Maker for Adoptions (currently a Deputy Director) as to whether the applicant/s should be approved as adopters.

If the Agency Decision Maker intends not to approve the adopter/s, they will be informed of how they can make representations and of the Independent Review Mechanism for Adopters.

Once approved, adopters will then be supported with the process for Matching them with a Bexley child or a child from another Local Authority on an inter-agency basis.

Adopters will receive regular visits from their social worker in line with Adoption Agencies Regulations 2011 and National Minimum Standards 2011.

Prospective adopters also have access to the following services to support placements for adoption:

  • Adopters have access to the Emergency Out-of-Hours social work team.
  • Bexley has a Head Teacher of a virtual school for Looked After Children who is responsible for supporting schools in the education of Looked After Children, promoting their opportunities, monitoring their performance, preventing exclusion and enabling a smooth transition between schools, to enable them to achieve the best possible outcomes, and to ensure that the needs of Looked After Children and Adopted Children are a priority in every school.
  • The Safeguarding Children Service, where the ‘Independent Review Officers’ are based, works in close partnership with other agencies, particularly health, education and police to ensure looked after children are safeguarded and their education and health needs are met.
  • There is a designated Nurse for looked after children, who provides medical advice andsupport for looked after children and their carers. The looked after child Nurse will have access to a child’s history and can actively support adopters in accessing appropriate health care for children.
  • There is access to an Educational Psychology service from the Early Intervention Service (EIT) which works closely with local schools for all Bexley children. The EIT’s are a multi-disciplinary team including, psychologists, education welfare officers and teachers with behaviour management skills who link with specific schools.
  • All prospective adopters are able to access appropriate Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. This should be agreed with the social worker for the child, where appropriate, who will provide advice and support and see the adopter and/or child, if appropriate.
  • Prospective adopters are invited to meet with the Adoption Panel Medical Adviser to discuss medical issues relating to the child(ren) they are to have placed with them.

4.4 Adoption Support Services

  • Bexley aims to provide adoption support in a timely and flexible way that best meets the assessed needs and takes account of the adopters’ views as to the adoption support needed.
  • For all children being matched with Adopters,prior to the Adoption Panel considering the Match, a Support Plan will be completed confirming the needs of children and adults, the adoption support to be provided, by whom and for how long. The Adoption Support Plan will be reviewed annually to take account of any changes in needs, and also when requested by the adopter/s in the intervening periods.
  • For any new Adoption Support needs not identified in the Support Plan, the Bexley Adoption Service will complete Post Adoption Support assessments in the cases of Bexley placed children for 3 years after the Adoption Order is made. For other looked after childrennot placed by Bexley. Bexley will complete an Adoption Assessment after 3 years from the Adoption Order for adopters who live in the borough. Prior to that, Bexley will ask the adopters to approach the Adoption Team in the Local Authority that placed the child for adoption.
  • For any Adoption Support decided to be needed and provided post adoption that meets the eligibility criteria of the Adoption Support Fund, then Bexley Adoption Service will apply to the Adoption Support Fund for the finance for the service to be provided.
  • The Children’s Placements Service belongs to the South East Adoption Consortium which includes the following Local Authorities: Bromley, Kent and Medway. Profiles of prospective adopters and children awaiting placement are available to all consortium members and shared at adoption networking meetings to which adopters are invited.
  • After a period of 3 months, providing no match has been made, adopters can self-refer to the National Adoption Register or ask that the Adoption Service complete this on their behalf. This can occur before the 3 months if it is appropriate, such as where it is expected there will be no local match with a Bexley child.
  • The Children’s Placements Service offers support groups and seminars to prospective adopters, and provides information about other adoption support organisations – for example ‘Adoption UK’, ‘New Family Social’ (support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Adopters and Foster Carers), ‘Adoption Link’(a matching support service) and the National Adoption Register.
  • An annual picnic for adoptive families (for both families with children placed for adoption, and adopted and those waiting for placements for adoption) takes place in the summer months.

4.5 Support for Birth Families

The Children’s Placements Service commissions a counselling service for birth families.