Inspections Clinic: Regional adoption agencies

Regional adoption agencies (RAAs) provide a range of adoption services on behalf of local authorities, including recruiting and assessing adopters and ongoing adoption support.

They have developed in England since 2017. As of August 2023, there were 32 RAAs delivering services on behalf of 149 councils, meaning RAAs now deliver the majority of the country’s adoption activity.

Ofsted does not currently have powers to inspect RAAs directly but does examine aspects of adoption practice under the Social Care Common Inspection Framework, which covers voluntary adoption agencies and adoption support agencies, and as part of inspections of local authority children’s services.

Last year, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan directed the regulator to carry out a series of sample inspections as part of efforts to improve regulation and inspection arrangements and increase scrutiny of adoption practice.

Ofsted visited six RAAs in October and December 2023 and published its findings at the end of March this year.

Inspectors found day-to-day practice was generally strong but also highlighted challenges and concerns including difficulty recruiting staff and the fact the views of people with experience of adoption – especially children – were not routinely used to plan and shape services.

In some areas, regionalisation had increased and strengthened services but some adoptive families were not accessing timely support. A lack of scrutiny meant local authorities were sometimes unaware of serious problems and delays.

When it came to getting RAAs up and running, challenges included bringing together practice across several local authority areas where systems and the quality of social work could vary widely.

Frequent changes in senior leadership within local authorities affected working relationships and priorities. Limited funding and resources were also an issue amid high demand, especially for adoption support.

Ofsted said lessons could be learned from the experience of establishing RAAs amid plans to develop regional care co-operatives to commission placements for children in care.

For example, the lack of a consistent blueprint to inform RAA models and governance had slowed the pace of development.

Meanwhile, clearer expectations around independent scrutiny and audit may have helped local authorities better understand the quality and impact of services being provided on their behalf.

Here are some of the main findings from the report.

Recruitment, assessment and family-finding

Ofsted found recruitment and assessment of adopters, family-finding and matching by RAAs was consistently strong.

“Prospective adopters felt welcomed and supported through a detailed assessment process with effective preparation training to prepare for adoption,” says the report.

In some RAAs, regionalisation had contributed to an increase in local matches but this was not always the case.

Despite efforts to recruit, a lack of adoptive families was an issue in all six areas visited, resulting in less choice for some children waiting for adoption.

Children who wait longest continue to be sibling groups and those with more complex needs.

Staff and adopters highlighted a national shortage of practitioners to undertake assessments with four out of the six RAAs not having enough staff due to vacancies or lack of capacity in the staffing structure.

Delays in the assessment process caused by staff shortages left some prospective adopters feeling “frustrated and misled”, says the report.

Adoption support

The availability of adoption support varied significantly across the RAAs visited. The need for support often exceeded the resources available meaning some families waited a long time for an initial assessment in some regions.

“It left some families in an extended state of crisis, at times risking family breakdown,” says the report.

However, where families did get the right support, they were positive about the impact. “It made me feel empowered to keep going and gives me strength and confidence as we parent our children and journey through many struggles we have faced,” said one adoptive parent. “At no point have we felt alone or abandoned.”

Some RAAs had reviewed their structure to better meet demand for adoption support. For example, Adoption North East, which provides services on behalf of five local authorities in the region, created a new team to focus on providing a timely and high-quality initial response.

“The team has proved particularly effective at supporting distressed callers and providing trauma-informed advice and support,” says the report. This has reduced the number progressing from those initial contacts to formal assessment.

Leadership

Ofsted found leadership was stable in the RAAs visited. Most leaders had been in post since the agency was established.

It had taken time to establish new ways of working and in some areas staff turnover had increased because of the changes. However, inspectors found RAA leaders knew their services well and were able to identify strengths and areas for development.

Leaders had a good level of autonomy and flexibility to respond to changing local needs. “However, this was not consistent and in some services there were weaknesses that were not acted upon quickly enough,” says the report.

Views of those with lived experience

A key finding from the inspections was that the voice of those with experience of adoption was not always heard. “In particular, the voice of children was noticeably absent,” says the report.

Mentor schemes in five of the RAAs provided new adopters with support from people who had been through the adoption process, which families found helpful.

RAAs did seek the views of adopters and most were “incredibly positive” about their experience. But some who were not satisfied didn’t feel able to share concerns or make a complaint for fear it would damage their chances of adoption.

Inspectors found some excellent examples of how children’s views could inform services. At Adoption London West, children had helped establish drama groups while One Adoption West Yorkshire set up a group for teenagers that empowered children to speak about their experiences (see box).

But these examples were limited. “Most RAAs had not yet found ways to engage children in a meaningful way or had stalled in the early stages,” says the report.

Governance

The report found RAAs and partner local authorities “relied on self-reporting and did not carry out regular audits either internally or externally”.

“This meant that they did not always fully understand the quality and impact of the services being delivered,” says the report.

Some councils did not know about challenges identified by inspectors. “For example, one local authority reported that the RAA had excellent adoption support services but was unaware that families in crisis were waiting up to six months to be assessed,” says the report.

The six RAAs visited all had different models and structures meaning Ofsted could not determine whether one model was better than another.

Government needs to explore the right level of scrutiny and the overall system of accountability for adoption practice, concludes the report. This includes “a risk-based and proportionate use of inspection and regulation”.

Examples of RAA good practice

West Yorkshire

Targeted recruitment of adopters

One Adoption West Yorkshire, which works on behalf of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield councils, set out to better understand barriers preventing people from ethnic minority groups becoming adopters. It made a number of changes in response to feedback from adopters, including updating recruitment materials to reflect the diversity of families it works with.

It allocated two days per week of team managers’ time for one year to develop practice in relation to recruiting, assessing and supporting black families and offered one-to-one support from a “culturally matched” member of staff to black adopters during the assessment and matching process. In 2022/23, 21 per cent of the agency’s approved adopters were from black and ethnically diverse backgrounds compared with 10 per cent the previous year.

London

Benefits of regional partnerships

Adopt London, which is made up of four regional adoption agencies, has developed a strong partnership with We Are Family (WAF), a peer support organisation for adopters. The body uses pooled resources to make an annual grant to WAF, which has used the funding to develop its digital resources – all delivered in partnership with Adopt London.

WAF membership in London is now over 900 with 200 new London members joining in 2023. There are 10 WAF support groups in London and its Adoption Shared podcasts were downloaded 4,431 times in 2023 alone. A recent survey found 83 per cent of WAF members agree they have had access to more resources, information and support to manage the challenges of adoptive parenting.

Southern England

Listening to those with lived experience

Adopt South is a partnership between four local authorities: Hampshire, Southampton, Portsmouth and Isle of Wight. It has established processes for gathering the views of those with lived experience of adoption and aims to ensure their perspectives have a direct impact on practice.

Steps it has taken include ensuring people with lived experience are represented in the staff team and introducing a “you said, we did” feedback system. It has also established four focus groups including groups for birth family members, adopters and those who have been adopted. The RAA has used these forums to consult on development proposals and involved them in making bids for funding.

Source: Regional adoption agencies – thematic inspection report, Ofsted, March 2024

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