Accessibility links

1
Language selection

Agenda item

Monitoring The Performance And Progress Of The Western Bay Regional Adoption Service

Minutes:

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing introduced the report which provided an update on performance and progress of the Western Bay Regional Adoption Service, including the Annual Report on Regional Performance Indicators for 2020/2021 which is attached at Appendix A.

 

She provided background on the Western Bay Adoption Service (WBAS) and the Adoption and Children Act 2002. She added that the WBAS was integrated into the National Adoption Service (NAS) as one of the five identified regional collaboratives. The aims set out in the directions were listed at 3.5 of the report. Further information on the Governance Board, Advisory Group and the Director of Operations and Central Team were at 3.6 onwards of the report.

 

The Regional Adoption Manager explained that the WBAS became fully operational in April 2015. Prior to this adoption services were delivered locally via the three local authorities, Swansea, Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot.

 

The regional adoption service provided a range of services and interventions across the five key domains to those affected by adoption. They were:

 

  • Assessing and supporting prospective adopters

 

  • Assessing non-agency (parent/carer, formerly step-parent adoptions)

 

  • Birth Record Counselling and Intermediary Services (BRC & IS)

 

  • Adoption support (assessments and support services to anyone affected by adoption)

 

  • Twin tracking and Family Finding (TT&FF), which involves working with birth families of children in or following care proceedings and once a Placement Order has been granted by court in searching for an adoptive placement

 

The Regional Adoption Manager outlined some key areas of the performance and activity of the service which were outlined in section 4.5 of the report. To note, there was a reduction in the number of children referred for twintracking to the service saw a 16% decrease on the previous year. 44 Bridgend children were referred compared to 62 in 2019-20. The number of children placed saw a slight decrease during the year mainly due to the impact of COVID during the early months of the Pandemic - 69 compared to 79 in 2019/20 but more similar in number to 2018/19 when 67 children were placed. The number of Bridgend children placed remained the same as the previous year with 20 children transitioning to their adoptive placement.

 

The Regional Adoption Manager noted that there had been issues identifying potential adopters in the Bridgend and Neath port talbot areas so the Marketing Officer was working closely with these local authorities.

 

The Cabinet Member Communities asked in relation to the marketing for Bridgend and NPT, what have we learn and what can be done to bring more adopters forward. The Regional Adoption Manager explained that making the service visible and engaging with potential adopters to make them aware of the service and provide encouragement. She added that at the end of the year the Regional Adoption Service could look at the performance and see what needed to be done going forward. The Leader stated that social media was a good avenue to look at in terms of promoting the service. She added that it was national adoption week next week and so there would be a great level of promotion and engagement work going on during this time. The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing asked if Members could promote this through their social media channels to ensure as much engagement as possible.

 

The Leader mentioned that the protests on forced adoption had a negative impact on adoption in Bridgend. He asked if there was any sign of improvements or was there a lack of data to make that determination. The Regional Adoption Manager stated that it was too early to tell but would be able to have a better understanding later in the year.

 

The Leader queried a section of the report that mentioned there was a decrease in the number of new adoption support assessments commencing. He asked for clarification on this as the team had grown and more support had been provided. The Regional Adoption Manager explained that this was due to an injection of funding for the previous year which enabled more staff to be employed, the result of which was that many families that were on the waiting list were cleared more quickly.

 

The Leader asked if there was data on the success of the service and any feedback following this. The Regional Adoption Manager stated that we had started to receive feedback from adopters and would be brought to fruition in next years report. She added that the adoption service had also begun to ask for feedback on closed cases to see how adopters had felt about the services they had received. The Leader added that this was beneficial to ensure that the service could understand the positive experiences that were provided while also improving the service where necessary.

 

The Deputy Leader asked if there were any major challenges for the regional adoption service when Bridgend switched to the Cwm Taff Health Board. The Regional Adoption Manager explained that there were some small challenges but overall, the process was seamless. The challenges that are faced did not affect the work carried out on the ground.  

 

RESOLVED: That the Committee considered and noted the performance and progress of the Regional Adoption Service

 

 

Supporting documents:

 

A to Z Search

  1. A
  2. B
  3. C
  4. D
  5. E
  6. F
  7. G
  8. H
  9. I
  10. J
  11. K
  12. L
  13. M
  14. N
  15. O
  16. P
  17. Q
  18. R
  19. S
  20. T
  21. U
  22. V
  23. W
  24. X
  25. Y
  26. Z