Adoption agencies go regional
Derren Hayes
Thursday, June 29, 2017
The first regional adoption agencies are set to launch, but it is still unclear how benefits will be delivered.
Over the next few months, the first regional adoption agencies (RAA) are due to launch, bringing together the adoption placement and support services of local authorities and voluntary sector agencies across entire regions.
The government hopes the move, first unveiled in 2015, will help improve the speed with which children are matched with prospective adopters by searching a wider area for placements as soon as adoption is identified as the best option for a child. It is also one of the measures included in the 2016 adoption strategy, Adoption: A Visionfor Change, to address a reduction in the number of adoptions as a result of two legal rulings.
However, the first two RAAs were due to be up and running already (see timeline).
The RAA covering Greater Manchester will now launch on 3 July due to delays caused by the general election, meanwhile the status of the One Adoption hub covering three RAAs in Yorkshire and Humber is unclear.
A spokesman for Leeds City Council, which is leading on the latter project, says while most of the changes to leadership structures and recruitment and assessment processes have been completed for the West Yorkshire RAA, "backroom functions and legalities" in the South Yorkshire and North and Humber RAAs are still to be finalised.
He adds: "While the hub is in place, the exact functionality of the hub itself is still being defined, so there is still some work to do to bring it all together under the whole One Adoption approach."
Mark Owers, professional adviser to the Adoption Leadership Board whose consultancy Owers Advisory is supporting the Department for Education with delivering regional adoption agencies, says there has been a "soft launch" of One Adoption while the agency covering Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole will launch on 1 July.
Nine of the 18 RAAs to have been formed are set to begin operating this year, with the remainder by April 2018. Under legislation introduced through the Children and Social Work Act, which received Royal Assent in April, all councils must be part of an agency by 2020. However, the plans of 20 of the 152 local authorities in England - mainly those in the South East, South West and Cumbria regions - are still unclear.
A report published in January by Owers Advisory states that 13 of the 20 councils yet to join the programme have indicated they want to. However, the DfE failed to respond to requests for up to date information on progress.
The report also outlines the anticipated benefits of regional agencies. In addition to streamlining the placement process, it says regional approaches should improve recruitment of adopters, the tracking of children, commissioning of adoption support and links with specialist services.
It states that five demonstration projects - Central England, Aspire Adoption, Central East, Greater Manchester and One Adoption - expect to increase the number of children placed within regional agencies and reduce the use of inter-agency placements purchased from councils and voluntary agencies outside the RAA area. In such cases, an inter-agency fee of £27,000 is paid.
John Simmonds, director of policy, research and development at CoramBAAF says the expectation is that regionalising adoption will bring "economies of scale" that will reduce delays to the adoption process, improve adopter recruitment and join up post-adoption support services. However, he says it is "unclear" how that will be done.
He also says the "organisational upheaval" it will create "is dominating the RAA process rather than key child issues".
Simmonds also says there are concerns about the impact on voluntary adoption agencies.
"The role of the voluntary sector very much depends on the local commissioning and procurement processes," he explains. "That is a major challenge for voluntary adoption agencies in the RAA process given they generate their income from the inter-agency fee."
A DfE spokesperson says more information on the RAA programme will be available "in due course".
TIMELINE: PLANNED LAUNCH DATES FOR REGIONAL ADOPTION AGENCIES
Apr-Jun 17
- One Adoption (Yorkshire and Humber) (start of phased launch)
Jul-Sep 17
- Aspire Adoption (Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole)
- Greater Manchester and Cheshire East*
- Thames Valley and Merseyside
- Wigan
*originally planned for Apr-Jun 17 launch
Oct-Dec 17
- Adopt Central England
- Tees Valley and West Pennine
Mar-Apr 18
- Adopt Central East
- One Adoption (Yorkshire and Humber) (end of phased launch)
- Adopt South West
- Adopt@heart
- Adopt West
- East Midlands
- Adopt North East
- Adopt South Central
- Adopt East
- London