Legal Update: Increasing early permanence

Early permanence is the umbrella term for “fostering for adoption” and “concurrent planning” which describes a type of placement for looked-after children that may, depending on the court’s decision and the best interest of the child, result in that placement becoming a placement for adoption or reunification to family.

With funding from Adoption England, the five regional adoption agencies (RAA) in London commissioned Coram to explore early permanence in London, and to provide evidence on how the use of early permanence can be increased in the right circumstances to help reduce instability for children and support the benefits of a placement with a permanent family earlier.

Recent studies have shown that while early permanence is a widely recognised legal approach to finding a permanent family for a child, the uptake varies and London was recently identified as a region with a low rate of early permanence placements.

This mixed-methods research study included 41 interviews with 16 local authorities in London, interviews with representatives of the judiciary, Cafcass and other stakeholders, as well as analysis of adoption and special guardianship dataset.

Analysis found that London had some of the lowest rates of children placed for adoption, and early permanence specifically. Although as a proportion of the adoptions made, early permanence in London was in line with national averages.

Barriers and drivers

The research identified challenges related to local authorities, the courts and early permanence carers, and found that:

Adoptions, and by extension early permanence, are relatively rare in London, which negatively impacts awareness of early permanence among social workers, family judges and legal representatives, as few have practical experience of early permanence.

A lack of early tracking of children who may be placed for adoption may result in missing key opportunities for early permanence.

Often delayed and protracted assessments created lengthy periods of uncertainty making early permanence less viable.

The current court delays experienced across London create additional uncertainties in an already complex process.

There was a perception of a shortage of early permanence carers in London, which may be impacting on confidence of early permanence being considered.

The research highlights that early permanence is a complex process that involves a number of uncertainties, requires timely consideration, careful planning and tracking of children during the process and strong support mechanisms in place to foster carers also approved as adopters when a child is placed and awaiting the court decision.

The research found a range of factors that were seen to facilitate early permanence:

Local authority staff with a background in, and understanding of, adoption who acted as early permanence “champions”.

A co-ordinated and systematic approach to care planning, for example early identification and tracking of children through comprehensive pre-birth work.

Knowledge of local authorities’ legal obligation to consider early permanence as part of the child’s care plan, enabling them to challenge views that early permanence was pre-empting the courts’ decision.

Senior judicial support for early permanence and Ofsted’s focus on early permanence.

Key recommendations

The report provides recommendations for increasing early permanence, some of which are set out below.

For RAAs:

• Regular training on early permanence for local authority staff, including authority legal representatives, senior managers, children’s social workers and other frontline teams.

• Recruit more early permanence carers, especially from global majority groups and address common perceptions about the perceived shortage of early permanence carers.

• Support London-based VAAs that do not train and approve early permanence carers, to increase their numbers.

• Increase the likelihood of prospective adopters choosing early permanence, by requiring them to opt-out of early permanence, rather than to opt-in.

• Develop communications with the judiciary to improve awareness and support for early permanence practices.

For councils:

• Ensure early permanence is raised as early as possible – for example, at legal gateway meetings and permanence planning meetings.

• Clarify the roles and responsibilities for early permanence and nominate an early permanence “champion”.

• Encourage social workers and legal teams to attend early permanence training.

For the judiciary:

• Increase support for early permanence among senior members of the judiciary.

• Enable opportunities for RAAs and councils to present issues regarding early permanence.

There is a lack of data about early permanence carers, their characteristics, adoption journey and motivation, including any factors that may impact on recruitment and family finding. However, these recommendations, alongside the Early Permanence National Standards and Early Permanence Quality Mark, could have a major impact on the use of early permanence where adoption is the plan.

www.childrenslegalcentre.com