The Regional Adoption Manager reported on the performance and progress of the Western Bay Regional Adoption Service (WBAS), including the Annual Report on Regional PI Performance 2017/18.

The Regional Adoption Manager reported that the WBAS is integrated into the National Adoption Service (NAS) as one of the five identified regional collaboratives.  She outlined the management and oversight arrangements for the National Service which consists of a Governance Board; an Advisory Group and the Director of Operations and Central Team. 

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing informed the Committee that following the Health Board boundary change, it was likely that Bridgend would be required to form part of the Vale, Valleys and Cardiff regional collaborative, although it had been agreed that Bridgend would remain as part of the Western Bay collaborative, with the transition to a new region not taking place before April 2020 at the earliest. 

The Regional Adoption Manager reported on the key achievements for the year, with the number of children placed showing a slight increase on the previous year.  More children were placed with Western Bay adopters than in inter agency placements during the year.  She stated there had been an improvement in the number of children who had Life Story Materials provided to adopters.  The average time taken to approve adopters from inquiry stage to Agency Decision Making decision had decreased from 9.7 months to 8.2 months compared to the national benchmark of 8 months.  Investment had been made in developing the WBAS website making it more interactive, user friendly and including the active offer.  A members’ page was also being developed and there are child friendly pages to encourage children to access the site.   She informed the Committee that development and implementation of the Transition/Moving on model to assist in improving the preparation of children for adoption and in the provision of Life Story material has continued to be rolled out with training to staff across the region. 

The Regional Adoption Manager informed the Committee that work was taking place to improve website access and to develop a revised All Wales marketing and recruitment strategy. 

The Committee questioned whether the adoption service gets the same level of publicity as the fostering service.  The Regional Adoption Manager informed the Committee that there is a great deal of activity concentrated on raising the profile and awareness of adoption.  The Head of Children’s Social Care informed the Committee that the fostering service is more locality based, while adoption is a more national and regional service. 

The Committee referred to the further development work planned for the IT system to feed into the reporting system and commented that data capture would be more complex.  The Regional Adoption Manager informed the Committee that work is ongoing with Neath Port Talbot Council’s ICT Department on data capture work.  She stated that data capture is resource intensive with the need to work across the region’s 3 local authorities, moving the ICT systems within the adoption service on to the WCCIS system was being considered as the current system can be cumbersome. 

The Committee asked which marketing campaign has been successful and why.  The Regional Adoption Manager did not believe that any of the marketing which had been run had been more successful than others.  She stated that the service is working with the NAS on developing newer ways of working. 

The Committee requested an explanation of what Birth Record Counselling involved.  The Regional Adoption Manager explained that these are requests received from adults who were adopted seeking historical information on their adoption. 

The Committee congratulated the service on its success in placing groups of siblings together.  The Regional Adoption Manager informed the Committee that the interests of children had been promoted in order to attract potential adopters.

The Committee requested clarification on the difference between Western Bay and Inter-agency adopters.  The Regional Adoption Manager explained that Western Bay adopters are adopters who are approved by the region, while Inter-agency adopters are those that are approved by other local authorities or other agencies.  Adopters can access details of children for adoption through an interactive site online known as Link Maker.  Not all children are on this site, but there are proposed changes in the arrangements for the Adoption Register Wales , which would be hosted by Linkmaker and all Welsh children will be registered on this system

The Committee was pleased to see the work being done on life journeys and placed on record its thanks to the service as adoptions are more difficult to achieve during times of austerity. 

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing informed the Committee that with the impending change in health board boundary, work is ongoing on the transfer of services to Cwm Taf.  She stated that the adoption service is not ready for transfer as Cwm Taf is part of a larger adoption region comprising five local authorities.  There are a number of considerations requiring transitioning and it would take longer to transfer the adoption service to the new region.

RESOLVED:           (1) That the Committee considered and noted the performance and progress of the Regional Adoption Service;

(2) That consideration be given to future adoption marketing campaigns and how elected members can play a part in promoting those campaigns.