The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing submitted a report, that provided Members with an overview of the current position regarding the Western Bay Regional Adoption Service.

By way of background information, she confirmed that the creation of a National Adoption Service is one of the key policy strands of the Welsh Government, as enacted in the Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act 2014.  A new model for delivering Adoption Services was introduced by Welsh Government, which dictated that all Councils are expected to deliver Adoption Services collaboratively.  In the case of City and County of Swansea, Bridgend County Borough Council and Neath Port Talbot County this is the Western Bay footprint.

Paragraph 3.2 of the report confirmed that a Regional Adoption Project was initiated under the Western Bay programme and was funded via the regional collaboration grant in 13/14 and 14/15, and this section of the report detailed the aims of this Project.

In terms of the current situation, the Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that membership of the Regional Management Board/Committee which has replaced the Steering Group has been agreed and complies with the requirements set out in the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (Joint Adoption Arrangements) (Wales) Directions 2015.

The flexible/remote working arrangements as part of the functional model were working well.  At the initial set up of the Western Bay Adoption Service, differences to staff terms and conditions caused some difficulties.  These issues have now been resolved stated the Officer.

Performance in the first quarter of the year and to date had been good in relation to a number of PI’s, as was reflected in paragraph 4.3 of the report, with these figures demonstrating a positive trend for the service.

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing added that Western Bay had achieved 50% of the children matched within six months although doing well compared to performance across Wales, it was an area the required some improvement.

On a more positive note however, the conversion rate of enquiries to approvals was the highest in Wales.

Attached to the report at Appendices 1 and 2 was data and associated information which showed the qualitative performance to date across the region, with the specific cumulative Bridgend numbers of children being reflected at August 2015.

In terms of some key issues, the Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that there are currently a number of social work and business support vacancies which have placed some pressures on the service since it became operational.  There was a Strategy in place to address this with a combination of both permanent and temporary arrangements being progressed, including collaboration with one of the partner Voluntary Adoption Agencies. 

She then outlined for the benefit of Members, the key milestones/priorities for the coming year, as were listed in paragraph 4.15 of the report.

The Cabinet Member Regeneration and Economic Development in response to a recent news press release, proposed that a Presentation be given at a future Corporate Parenting Cabinet Committee of the court processes that are followed prior to a child being proposed for adoption, so that Members have a full understanding of the ‘checks and balances’ that are followed during this process.

A Member referred to paragraph 3.3 of the report, where it stated that the Western Bay Adoption Service aimed to increase the recruitment of local adopters by 100%, given the high number of LAC across the Western Bay Region. He felt that data in respect of this should be included in any future reports.

Officers stated that this could be arranged, and that further information regarding this could be shared with the Member outside of the meeting.

A Member also added that some of the data attached to the report should be broken down further, in order to make it more easily explained and in turn understood.

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing agreed that in future such reports this information would be set out more clearly, though this supporting data was only confirming the information contained in paragraph 4.3 of the report.

The Cabinet Member Children’s Social Services and Equalities enquired if certain categories of children we are seeking to place in adoption are harder to place then others, for example those of a certain age or with a severe disability.

The Group Manager Disability, Transition and Case Management confirmed that those individuals with complex needs and older children are sometimes hard to place under a fostering arrangement, but there were other organisations that accounted for these children, such as Barnardo’s and certain other key organisations.

The Chairperson concluded debate on this item by thanking the Adoption Team in the Wellbeing Directorate for their hard work which had contributed to the report’s positive outcomes.

RESOLVED:                             That the Corporate Parenting Cabinet Committee   

                                                  noted the report.