Archived decisions
HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
ADOPTION SERVICE
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
2008-2009
Contents
1. Introduction..........................................................................Page 3
2. Principles of the Service .......................................................Page 3
3. Aims and Objectives of the Service ......................................Page 3
4. Services Provided by the Adoption Service...........................Page 4
Recruitment, Approval, Training Support of Prospective
Adopters
Children and Young People
Family Finding Role
Support to Birth Parents
Schedule 2/ Section 98 - access to records
Adoption Support services
Adoption and Permanence Panel
Special Guardianship
Permanence
Stepparent Adoption
5. Name and Address of Adoption Manager.............................Page 7
6. The Adoption Service Management Structure......................Page 8
7. Monitoring and Evaluation of the Adoption Service ............Page 8
8. Complaints.............................................................................Page 8
9. Independent Reviewing Mechanism.............................Page 9
10. Advocacy Service...................................................................Page 9
11. OFSTED......................................................................Page 9
12. Approval of the Statement of Purpose ..................................Page 9
1. Introduction
Hampshire County Council acts as an Adoption Agency to provide adoption
services as required under the Adoption and Children Act 2002, the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 and the Adoption National Minimum Standards.
The Agency aims to fulfil its range of duties and responsibilities under the
above legislation and the Children Act 1989 and Children Act 2004 in meeting
the needs of those children who have or may be adopted, their birth parents
and guardians and those people who are or may be adoptive parents.
2. Principles of the Service
· Children are entitled to grow up as part of a stable and loving family, which
can meet their needs through childhood and beyond.
· The child's welfare and safety will be the paramount consideration.
· All children will have the same opportunities irrespective of gender, ethnic
origin, disability, culture, religion, language and sexual orientation.
· Achieving permanence for a child will be a key consideration in working
with children in need and their families and in working with any child who is
looked after by Hampshire.
· Permanence can be achieved by remaining with or returning to birth
parents, legal permanence with extended family, adoption or permanent
placement with other than extended family through legal means.
· Delay in the adoption process can have a significant impact on the
wellbeing of children and must be kept to the minimum necessary to
achieve the child's best interests.
· Adoption has lifelong implications for all involved. Children and young
people who have been adopted, adoptive families and birth families all
have access to a range of services and supports to meet their assessed
needs.
· Children have the right to be listened to, express their wishes and feelings
and participate in decisions about their future. They will be encouraged
and enabled to do this in a way appropriate to their age and understanding.
3. Aims and Objectives of the Service
The main aims of the Hampshire County Council Adoption Service are to:-
· Provide a range of quality services which can promote best outcomes for
children who need permanent placements.
· Meet and comply with the National Minimum Standards for Adoption
Services.
· Adhere to permanency planning timescales as set out in adoption legislation, in order to avoid delay and maximise each child's opportunity to experience a stable and secure family life.
· Provide appropriate choice of adoption placement for children within Hampshire County Council, and beyond where appropriate, for example through the Consortium or the National Adoption Register, whose needs have been assessed and found to be best met by adoption.
· Ensure that children are well prepared both practically and emotionally for
a move to a new permanent family.
· Link children for whom adoption is the plan with families who can meet
their ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic needs whilst recognising that no child should wait indefinitely for the `ideal' match.
· Recruit, prepare and support sufficient adopters from diverse backgrounds to provide permanent family care for children where their individual needs and history will be understood, valued and respected.
· Provide a comprehensive support package, including financial support where appropriate to achieve stable and successful placements.
· Provide effective and efficient adoption panels to enable prospective adopters' assessments and children's plans to be progressed without delay.
· Ensure all staff are appropriately recruited, supervised and trained to fulfil their agency functions.
· Ensure that wherever possible and appropriate, siblings will be placed
together.
· Ensure that issues for contact with the birth family are carefully considered
and meet the individual child's needs.
· Provide independent time limited advice and support to birth parents at the
point that adoption becomes the plan for the child.
· Provide an efficient and responsive assessment and counselling service
for children, adopters, birth relatives and adopted adults in respect of
adoption support services in conjunction with other agencies.
· To maintain effective partnership with other adoption agencies.
· To ensure that cost effective services are provided and commissioned
which maximise available resources.
· To ensure that accurate and up to date records and management
information is kept in relation to individual children, adoptive parents and
services and to maintain confidentiality and security of adoption records.
· Ensure service users are fully involved and consulted on service delivery and service development.
· Treat all service users with respect and without prejudice or discrimination
4. Services Provided by the Adoption Service
Recruitment, Approval, Training and Support of Prospective Adopters
The service responds within stated timeframes to initial enquiries and
assessment of prospective adoptive parents. The service recruits, prepares,
assesses, trains, supports and links adoptive families with children for whom
adoption is the plan.
Adopters are provided with a range of information following approval to
support them in the adoption task. Support is also provided through training
opportunities, access to regular workshops run by a clinical psychologist,
support groups run by Adoption UK, social events, and individual support from members of the adoption team.
Children and Young People
The service recognises that children for whom adoption is the plan and
adopted children may have specific education, health and emotional needs.
Supporting educational attainment of vulnerable children is a priority for Hampshire and appropriate support will be identified as a matter of priority.
A team of clinical psychologists is available to offer a consultation service and
therapeutic counselling for children and adoptive parents. Nurses for Looked After Children are available to address the health needs of children throughout the
adoption process.
A children's guide is available for children for whom adoption is the plan.
Hampshire has a pool of informal volunteer advocates who offer support to young people to all the meetings and the Adoption Support Service has an independent mediator who can offer a mediation service for Birth Families and Adopters.
Family Finding Role
The Permanence Team Manager allocates a permanence social worker to all cases
where adoption may be an option being considered in childcare planning.
The adoption team social worker does not take on the childcare case
responsibility but works alongside the childcare social worker, providing
advice about adoption issues, and identifying any factors which may inform
recruitment needs.
Support to Birth Parents and relatives
Birth parents and relatives have access to independent support and counselling. Information is given to birth parents about this service at an early point in the permanency planning process.
Post Adoption Team : Adult Work
Schedule 2 counselling: In conjunction with a commissioned voluntary organisation, the Post Adoption team offers a counselling service to adopted adults who are seeking access to records about their adoption and family of origin.
Section 98 counselling and Intermediary Work: The Post Adoption team offers counselling to birth relatives seeking to make contact with a relative who has been adopted.
The team provides an intermediary service to both adopted adults and birth relatives who are seeking to find a family member. However, this service only extends to individuals living in the Hampshire boundaries.
Post Adoption team : Adoption Support Services
The post adoption team provides a range of adoption support services required under the Adoption Support Services regulations 2005:
· Assessment of need for adoption support service when requested by an adoptive family, and provision of some of those services where possible.
· Some therapeutic services are provided from within the team and in conjunction with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
· Adopter Support groups in partnership with Adoption UK
· A range of training/support groups for adoptive families on single issues.
· Children's support group
· Birth parents support group being piloted
· Adoption Information Exchange ( Letterbox system)
· Support of direct contact arrangements ( by Permanence and Post Adoption teams)
· Mediation Service by privately commissioned provider.
Inter Country adoption
Hampshire adoption agency has an agreement with Parents and Children Together (PACT) a registered voluntary adoption agency to train, assess and prepare those people who are seeking to adopt a child from overseas.
Adoption Panels
Hampshire County Council Adoption Service provides an advisory service which oversees the recruitment, training, management and administration of four adoption panels. Each adoption panel meets once a month.
Permanence which may be achieved by Adoption/SGO or other legal route
In Hampshire it has been agreed that an Adoption and Permanence panel will consider planning for some children where plans for permanence may not include a legal order. For example some children may be best placed in long term foster care which can meet their needs to have a strong sense of personal belonging to and identity with the family.
Special Guardianship
On 30th December 2005 The Adoption and Children Act introduced a new
order called Special Guardianship. A special guardian formally takes on the
legal powers and responsibilities of parenting a child until their 18th birthday.
Unlike adoption, special guardianship does not end the legal relationship
between the child and their parents. The special guardian/s are given parental
responsibility and are legally entitled to the final say in most decisions about
the child's upbringing. However the birth parents continue to have parental
responsibility and would have to be consulted in specific situations.
Many of the children who could benefit from special guardianship are those
who are looked after by a local authority. The Adoption and Children Act
requires local authorities to have a range of support services.
Step-Parent Adoption
Non-agency adoption applications, usually a step-parent seeking to adopt a
child, require an assessment and recommendations in a report to court
prepared by social worker. The step parent social workers attached to the County Adoption Team undertake these assessments.
5. Name and Address of the Manager (information as required by
Regulation 2(1)
The adoption manager is:-
Karen Parkinson
County Service Manager
Permanence and Adoption
Children and Families Service
Town End House
East Street
HAVANT
Hampshire
PO9 1UB
Telephone Number: 02392 471644
E-mail: [email protected]
Mrs Parkinson qualified in 1976 at Middlesex Polytechnic with a BA Hons in Social Science with a CQSW.
Mrs. Parkinson has worked in the Social Services section with Hampshire and Portsmouth for 30 years and has extensive experience in adoption and planning for children. Mrs. Parkinson obtained a Diploma in Advanced Social Work in at Goldsmith College University, London as well as a Masters in Business Administration at Portsmouth.
6. The Adoption Service Management Structure (information as
required by Regulation 2(1)
The Adoption Manager works directly to the Area Director who also acts as Adoption Agency Decision Maker.
The structure of the Adoption and Permanence Service is attached at Appendix 1a and 1b.
HCC Organisational Chart
7. Monitoring and Evaluation of the Adoption Service
The Adoption Service works within the overall Quality Assurance Framework
for Children and Families, which sets out a range of general and service
specific standards and methods by which these standards are monitored.
Children for whom adoption is being considered or who have been placed for
adoption are reviewed by Independent Reviewing Officers.
Hampshire Adoption Service continually monitors and evaluates its service at every stage of the adoption process to ensure quality and effectiveness. Hampshire welcomes feedback from service users.
Feedback from prospective adopters on service quality and effectiveness is
obtained via feedback sheets on the preparation and training process and following the prospective adopter's approval process. The adoption panel experience is similarly evaluated.
As part of the Consortium with Oxfordshire, Surrey and PACT and as a member of
British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) Southern Regional Group of Local Authorities, HCC Adoption Service actively considers and shares good practice and policy development.
The Adoption Service is inspected on a 3-yearly basis by Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills).
8. Complaints
Complaints Procedure
Hampshire County Council Children's Services complaints procedure is based on Getting the Best from Complaints (Departments for Education and Skills 2006). The service is provided to service users at the point of contact. The complaint information leaflet is currently being revised. The Complaints and Customer Care Manager's address is:
County Offices
Children's Services Department
The Castle
Ashburton Court East Floor 2
Winchester SO23 8UG
Tel: 0845 6004555
E-mail address: [email protected]
The Complaints Manager maintains close links with the Adoption and Permanence teams and monitors the process, outcomes and recommendations of all complaints. An overview looks at all complaints across the service bi-annually. The Complaints Procedure is made up of 3 parts:-
· Stage 1 Local Resolution
· Stage 2 Investigation
· Stage 3 Review Panel
If complainants remain unsatisfied at Stage 3 they can ask their complaint to
be examined by the Local Government Ombudsman.
9. Independent Reviewing Mechanism
Prospective adopters are given written information about the role of the
Independent Reviewing Mechanism as part of their preparation process.
They are also provided with leaflets about the IRM when information which may affect their suitability to adopt is being prepared for presentation to panel.
10. Advocacy Service
Hampshire provide an independent and confidential advocacy service for children looked after on behalf of Hampshire County Council. The service supports young people in meetings and reviews, offers independent advice and advocacy, supports young people in making a complaint and facilitates consultation and participation of young people in matters affecting their lives. This service can be accessed via Child and Participation Officer.
11. OFSTED
OFSTED
Royal Exchange Buildings
St. Ann's Square
Manchester
M2 7LA
Telephone number: 08456 404045
12. Approval of the Statement of Purpose
The Statement of Purpose will be reviewed, updated annually and formally
approved by the Executive Member.
Hampshire County Council strives to meet the requirements laid down in the Adoption and Children Act 2002, the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 and National Minimum Standards (Department for Education and Skills) published under the Care Standards Act 2000.
The service is particularly mindful of the outcomes framework in Every Child Matters, namely: be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic wellbeing.
Feedback
We welcome feedback about our policies and procedures so if you have any comments about this Statement of Purpose please send them to:
Complaints and Customer Care Manager
County Offices
Children's Services Department
The Castle
Ashburton Court East Floor 2
Winchester SO23 8UG
Tel: 0845 6004555
Or by e-mail to: [email protected]
Appendix 1a
Appendix 1b