1 Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought.

That the Annual Report be noted and the Statement of Purpose be approved.

2 Reason(s)

2.1 In order to comply with the Care Standards Act 2000 and Adoption Regulations and Standards in particular.

2.2 Adoption services contribute to the Social Services Department's performance in achieving permanent family homes for children who cannot return to their birth families, which leads to improved outcomes for children. This in turn contributes to the County Council's Corporate Strategic Aim of Maximising life opportunities. The service is continuously striving to improve, and contributes to the Development of Councillors and staff.

3 Other options considered and rejected

3.1 None

4 Conflicts of Interest declared by the decision-maker or a member for officer consulted

4.1 None

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

5.1 None

6 Reason(s) for the matter being dealt with if urgent

6.1 Not applicable.

Approved by: Date of decision:

Councillor Felicity Hindson

1 Introduction

1.1 The purpose of this report is to inform the Executive member for Social Care of the level of service demands and Adoption activity between 1^st April 2003 and 31^st March 2004 as required by the Department of Health Local Authority Circular (98) 20 and the National Adoption Standards for England.

1.2 In addition, the National Adoption Standards for England (Department of Health 2000) and the Care Standards Act 2000, require that Social Care Policy Review Committee formally recommends the approval of, and that the Social Care Executive Member confirms approval of the Statement of Purpose of the adoption agency. (Appendix A)

2 Statement of Purpose

2.1 Every Adoption Agency is required to publish a Statement of Purpose, which

must accurately describe the facilities and services, and the organisational and

management arrangements. The statement must be reviewed annually and

formally approved by the Executive member for Social Care. Adoption

Agencies are inspected by the Commission for Social Care Inspection to

ensure that they are complying with all Adoption Regulations and Standards.

3 Background

3.1 There are three domestic Adoption Panels which meet to consider children's plans for adoption and the suitability of applicants as prospective adoptive parents, and proposed matches of children with families who can best meet their long term needs. These panels met on 35 occasions during the year.

3.2 The Inter-country adoption panel considered both Inter-country applicants and domestic cases (as described above) and met on 10 occasions over the same period. In January 2004, this panel ceased to recommend on inter-county cases and became a fourth domestic panel (see paragraph "The County Adoption Team")

3.3 A comparative summary of Panel activity in respect of children's plans for adoption and applicants approved as adopters is outlined overleaf. In the year 1^st April 2003 to 31^st March 2004 there was an increase of 6 in the number of children whose plans for adoption were recommended and agreed compared with the previous 12 months, whilst the number of domestic adoptive parents approved increased by 1 on the previous year. The number of children placed for adoption rose significantly by 32 from the previous year and the number of adoption orders made also rose by 12 from the previous year.

Hampshire Adoption Panel Activity 01.04.2003 - 31.03.2004

Children's Adoption plans Agreed

Age Range of Child

0-1 1-2 2-5 5-10 10+ Total

21 11 25 20 1 78

Prospective Adopters Agreed

Age Range of Child

0-1 1-2 2-5 5-10 10+ Total

1 5 27 4 1 38

Comparative summary of Panel Activity 1^st April 2000-31^st March 2004

2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004

Children's plans 62 43 72 78

Domestic adoptive 50 37 37 38

Applicants

Inter-Country 6 5 6 4

Adoptive Applicants

Children placed 61 38 49 81

Adoption Orders 56 49 39 51

Made

3.3 Commentary.

3.4 There are 16 children whose adoption plans were agreed between 1^st April 2003 and 31^st March 2004 and 9 children whose plans were made prior to April 2003 for whom no adoption placement has yet been found. Of these 25 children: 11 children are likely to be linked with prospective adopters shortly: (2 of the children are siblings and are to be placed together. The other children are all singletons).2 children (siblings) are still involved in care proceedings. Of the remaining 12 children: A boy aged 9 years for whom a possible long-term foster placement has been found with a view to adoption should the placement be successful .A boy of 6 with special educational needs for whom a possible long-term foster placement has been found. Two male siblings aged 8 and 7 with complex behavioural needs. A boy of 10 years who is being placed separately from his two younger siblings. A male and female sibling group aged 6 and 8 years. The eldest has some needs relating to attachment issues. A sibling group of three children comprising a girl of 9 and two boys of 7 and 4. The 7 year old has moderate to severe learning difficulties. Two female siblings aged 5 and 3, the eldest of whom has some special needs

3.5 Inter-Agency funding has been agreed for all the above children where adoption remains the plan. Their social workers are actively seeking placements nationwide via the adoption consortium of which Hampshire is a member, the National Adoption Register and other resources.

4 The Consortium

4.1 Hampshire remains committed to working with Surrey, Oxfordshire and Parents and Children Together (PACT) within a consortium. The Consortium continues to meet on a regular basis every 3 months to share details of children from each agency requiring adoptive placements and who have not been found placements within their own agency and to share details of approved adopters who have been approved for six months and who are still awaiting a placement.

4.2 During the year 1^st April 2003 - 31^st March 2004 Hampshire placed 4 children with approved adopters from the consortium. This included two brothers aged 7 and 4 placed with adopters from PACT; a girl of 5 placed with adopters from Oxfordshire and a relinquished baby of African heritage placed with a single black female adopter from PACT.

4.3 During that year Hampshire provided two sets of approved adopters for two children placed singly from Oxfordshire and Surrey.

4.4 All members of the consortium feel they have benefited from the opportunity to share policy and practice during meetings.

5 National Adoption Register

5.1 The details of all children for whom adoption is the plan and who have had a `Best Interest' decision made are sent to the National Adoption Register for England and Wales. The details of all Hampshire children who cannot be found adoptive homes within the county or within the consortium immediately go `live' on the Adoption Register's database which will then suggest potential links with those approved adopters also on its data base. During the year 2003-2004 Hampshire had one child linked with approved adopters via the Adoption Register. The child was male, aged 13 months at the time of the linking and had been identified as having some special needs. The approved adopters were from Bath and North East Somerset Council.

5.2 The details of all Hampshire's approved adopters are also sent to the Adoption Register, with the consent of these adopters. During the year 2003-2004 Hampshire linked one of its approved adoptive couples with a child from Ealing Social Services. The child was a relinquished baby of Chinese origin who was aged 9 months at the time of linking. The female adopter was Chinese and the male adopter White British.

6 Panel Membership

6.1 Hampshire continues to meet the regulatory requirements in respect of panel membership including a good level of commitment from elected members.

6.2 Panel members also participate in the training of social workers who are new to adoption and permanence work by contributing to a session within the Adoption Foundation Course.

7 Panel Training

7.1 Adoption Panel members were offered the equivalent of two full days' training during the year. The first of these, a full day, was presented by the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) and was on the subject of `Adoption Disruption' with reference to the role of the Adoption Panel. The second piece of training was a half-day on the subject of `Life Appreciation Days' presented by Berkshire Adoption Agency who have been piloting this practice which involves inviting all those significant people in a child's life to meet with the prospective adopters who have been linked with the child to share their information about the child prior to the child's placement. The final training for the year was another half-day part-experiential workshop presented and facilitated by a Play Therapist and Systemic Practitioner on the subject of `Attachment'.

7.2 It is proposed that in the future Panel training will continue to be offered for two full days each year and that this should include joint training with social workers from the Hampshire County Council Permanence Service.

8 The County Adoption Team

8.1 The County Adoption Team is now in its third full year of operation. The team comprises of one full time manager, one full-time senior practitioner, nine full-time equivalent social workers and one part-time (30 hours) social worker. At the current time two of these full-time social work posts are vacant.

8.2 The Executive Member for Social Care approved proposals on 20 February 2004 that in the future Hampshire's Inter-Country Adoption Service i.e. the assessing and approval of applicant adopters who wish to adopt from overseas be contracted out to Parents and Children Together (PACT). This has released additional social work time to participate in the recruitment, training and assessment of those people wishing to adopt Hampshire's looked-after children.

8.3 In addition to the above social work staff, the team also has 3 part-time dedicated step-parent adoption social workers.

8.4 During the year 2003-2004 38 families were approved and of these 28 were linked during that year. In addition 3 couples and one single female were approved during 2003-2004 to adopt from overseas: two couples from Cambodia and one couple and single female from China.

8.5 The County Adoption Team trained several groups of prospective adopters during the year, using the new BAAF 4 day training programme. The team also ran several open days and information days. The team is continuing to develop a specific training programme for foster carers wishing to adopt.

8.6 During the year 2003-2004 a total of 9 sets of foster carers were approved as adopters for 12 children already in placement with them. This is the same figure as for the previous year 2002-2003. More foster carers would consider offering legally permanent homes to children who they are looking after, if they would be eligible for an Adoption or Residence allowance which was more in line with the fostering allowances. Proposals for a new scheme of Adoption allowances were agreed by the Executive member for Social Care on 20 February 2004. These are due to be reviewed in the coming months, because of new regulations being introduced in anticipation of the Adoption and Children Act.

8.7 As at 31 March 2004 172 children were being supported in permanent placements by an Adoption Allowance being paid, and 55 children by way of a Residence Allowance being paid.

8.8 The County Adoption Team continues to offer support to approved adopters post-placement to maintain the placements of children deemed to have more complex needs. In the future it is proposed that support workers be recruited to assist in this area of work.

9 Permanence Teams

9.1 There are 3 permanence teams established as a result of the remodelling of children's services in September 2002. This service was established in order to ensure that planning for children's permanent placements took priority. There was a need to ensure that children were not `drifting' in care and that timely assessments and decisions were being made in line with national standards to achieve permanence for children who were unable to return to the care of their birth parents through placement within the extended family or with friends or through `stranger' adoption.

9.2 The three teams are established under one operational service manager and have had a significant impact on the service in terms of the number of children's plans being presented to panel but also in terms of the increase in the number of children adopted during the year 2003-2004 (51) with a further 47 placed.

9.3 The three teams are developing positive working relationships with the Family Support teams within their districts to ensure that those plans for children who are to be placed for adoption are progressed quickly. During the year, one team manager retired and a number of staff moved on, and joined the service. One team, in the North of the County has never been fully staffed, but has benefited from recent recruitment incentives and has fewer vacancies than previous years.

10 Post-Adoption

10.1 This service has continued to develop to ensure the availability of a comprehensive adoption service to all parties involved in the adoption process. Adoption is now recognized as a life-long process which does not stop on the making of an adoption order and which continues to be a much more `open' process than in the past with an emphasis on facilitating contact between adoptive families and birth families, either indirectly or, where appropriate, directly.

10.2 One of the Commissioning Officers (Post-Adoption) has moved temporarily into operational management to develop a specific team for adoption support services in response to the Adoption Support Regulations which came into force on 31^st October 2003. As well as the team manager the Adoption Support Team currently has one full-time and one half-time qualified social workers in post plus one social services assistant. New, additional Adoption Support Regulations are due to be introduced in the near future which will put additional responsibilities on the service to support all parties involved in adoption.

10.3 The following information therefore incorporates some new information since the last report giving an idea of the types of cases with which the team is working.

10.4 Types of cases:

10.4.1 Adoptive Families: 28

10.4.2 Birth relative Initiated Contact (BRIC): 37

10.4.3 Birth relatives (other than BRIC): 6

10.4.4 Section 51 (Birth Records Counselling) cases: 37

10.4.5 Abstracts from files for other Local Authorities: 71

10.4.6 Adoption Information Exchange generated visits: 8

10.4.7 Others: 4

10.5 Other Post-Adoption Activity:

10.5.1 Adoption Information Exchange - this continues to be routinely provided to those adoptive and birth families who wish to participate in this `letter-box' system. The system currently deals with some 235 adoptive families (representing 306 children) who regularly exchange a combination of letters, cards and photographs with birth family members. The numbers of families forming part of the exchange is likely to continue to rise. The following table shows the number of adoptive families participating in the exchange and growth of the Adoption Information Exchange since 1994:

Year Number of Adoptive Families

1994 50

1995 72

1996 94

1997 103

1998 125

1999 145

2000 154

2001 159

2002 210

2003-4 235

10.5.2 Telephone helpline - this is a direct line separate from the switchboard, advertised in leaflets and Yellow Pages and has been in operation since January 1998. The following table details the figures for the telephone helpline for the last five years, since 1999:

Year Calls Received

1999 387

2000 330

2001 230

2002 242

2003-4 191

10.5.3 Birth Records Counselling (Section 51 of the Adoption Act 1976) - for adoptive adults seeking information from their records continues to be provided across the department. The following table gives the figures for numbers receiving Birth Records Counselling for the last 5 years, since 1999:

Year Number of applicants

1999 167

2000 134

2001 104

2002 110

2003/4 126

10.6 These figures are a mix of Section 51 cases received via the Office for National Statistics and applications direct to area offices.

10.7 The workshop for adoptive parents on how to explain adoption to their child takes place once a year and averages 12 people who are a mix of couples and single attendees.

10.8 An adoption link workshop is run twice a year with an average of 40 people attending. This workshop is for adopted adults and birth parents who may have had or are considering a reunion.

10.8.1 Return and retrieval activity of closed adoption records (from Hampshire Records Office) - the number dealt with during 2003-4 was 367.

11 Future Developments

11.1 The adoption service continues to develop in response to new regulations and anticipated future changes in regulations and the law. In particular, work continues, to develop the adoption support services since the implementation of the Adoption Support Regulations which came into force on 31^st October 2003, and new regulations which are due to be introduced shortly. These enable the establishing of Independent Adoption Support Agencies, in the expectation of an increase in demands for the whole range of Adoption Support Services and place additional requirements on adoption agencies to offer lifelong services to everyone involved in adoption.

11.2 Hampshire County Council has improved its performance in finding adoptive families for children who cannot return home to their birth families, and have successfully balanced the need to actively consider extended family and friends as alternative permanent carers for children, and the need to have a range of adopters available where this is not possible.

12 Hampshire County Council Corporate Strategy

12.1 This report, and the Adoption service referred to, support the Corporate Strategy key aims, in particular;

12.2 Aim One: Maximising life opportunities, by making arrangements for vulnerable children to be found safe and secure families who will provide for those children into adulthood

12.3 Aim Two: Improving Services, and

12.4 Aim Three: Developing Councillors and Staff, in particular by training all adoption panel members , in order to ensure that the role of panel in agency decision making is of the highest quality.

12 Race Relations (Amendment) Act

13.1 Compliance with the Act in terms of carrying out an Impact Assessment is confirmed, forming part of a programme of work in respect of all adoption policies and procedures.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Executive member for Social Care notes the contents of the Annual Report and approves the Statement of Purpose.

Hampshire Adoption Agency Statement of Purpose Appendix A

12.4.1 Aims and Objectives

To ensure that children who are unable to safely remain with their birth parents, are found suitable and permanent families who are able to meet their social, emotional and educational needs, and care for them for the duration of their childhood and into adulthood.

Hampshire County Council is committed to ensuring that, wherever possible, and where it is consistent with the child's safety and welfare, children are permanently placed within their own extended family or kinship networks.

_ Children are placed with siblings

All children are respected as individuals and valued, so that the effects of racism and disability are countered and minimised.

In order to achieve good outcomes for children, the Adoption Service provides:

_ A Recruitment and Assessment Service to ensure that prospective adopters are trained, prepared, and supported to provide safe and happy homes for children.


_ An advisory service, which oversees the recruitment, training, management and administration of adoption panels.


_ A permanence service, which manages and tracks the plans of all children who cannot return home, to ensure that good quality permanent plans are made as quickly as possible.


_ An adoption support service to support children and adults throughout the adoption process.

12.4.2 Management Arrangements and Structure of the Service

The structure and location of the adoption and permanence staff are shown on the chart which is attached to this Statement of Purpose.

12.4.3 Complaints

Hampshire County Council Social Services Department has a complaints procedure which is available to all service users. Complaints are made, in the first instance to the social worker or team manager, and should they remain unresolved, can pass to the complaints officer who is responsible for ensuring that any complaint is dealt with to the standards required by law.

All service users are made aware of the complaints process and children are issued with their own "Children's Guide to Adoption", which contains information about how to complain.

In addition, complaints or representatives can be made to the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

12.4.4 Monitoring and Reviewing the Service

A report of adoption and permanence activity is presented annually to elected members through the Social Care Policy Review Committee which scrutinises and comments on all elements of the service, and, when satisfied, recommends approval of this Statement of purpose to the Executive Member for Social Care.

The Executive Member for Social Care, once satisfied that the adoption and permanence service is meeting the needs of Hampshire's looked-after children, confirms her approval of the Statement of Purpose.

This Statement of Purpose was last presented to Social Care Policy Review Committee on 14 November 2003 and approved by the Social Care Executive Member on 19 December 2003.

Strategic Service Manager - Sue Kocaman, Trafalgar House, Winchester SO23 8UQ Tel: 01962 847173

Strategic Service Manager: Sue Kocaman, Trafalgar House, Winchester SO23 8UQ Tel: 01962 847173

Community Therapists:

Elayna Truslove Karel Hartemink Catherine O'Brian
Bev Price

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The Following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

Documents which disclose exempt of confidential information as defined in the Act