APPENDIX 8a

BLACKPOOL COUNCIL

Adoption Agency Report

on the 6 month period

1/4/07 to 30/9/07

Prepared by –

Mandy Williams

Adoption Team Manager

November 2007

Adoption Agency Report

Six Monthly Report

Members of the Adoption Panel:

Jim Cullen Independent Chair

Dr. Suzanne Bradbury Education Adviser and Vice Chair

Dr. Rob Wheatley Medical Adviser

Kathryn Clayton Social Worker (Senior Practitioner, Permanence Team)

Adam Dalal Social Worker (Principal Social Worker, Blackburn with Darwen)

Mark Hindle Independent Member

Mike Hancock Independent Member

Christine Hedley Independent Member

Julie Adams Social Worker (Senior Quality Assurance Officer)

Cllr. Carol Radcliffe Elected Member (until May 2007)

Cllr Tony LeeElected Member (from July 2007)

Non voting staff / advisers in attendance at Panel;-

Mandy Williams Agency Adviser

Kim Kneale Legal Adviser

Del Schofield Panel Administrator

During the past six months the panel has met on the following dates: -

17 April 2007

15 May 2007

19 June 2007

28 June 2007

17 July 2007

21 August 2007

18 September 2007

The Panel meeting held on 28th June 2007 was an extra-ordinary Panel arranged to consider the match for a sibling group of 2 children, in order to minimise the disruption for these children.

Jim Cullen has chaired the majority of these meetings, but 3 were chaired by Dr Suzanne Bradbury.

In terms of Panel membership, there has only been one change in this six-month period. Cllr Carol Radcliffe , ceased membership of the Panel and was replaced by Cllr Tony Lee after only a short delay. Cllr Lee observed Adoption Panel in July 2007and took up his position in August 2007.

There are no Panel vacancies at this time.

Training

Although reported in the previous Adoption Agency Report, in this period Julia Pearmain, an independent trainer and consultant undertook a days training for Panel members on 19.4.07. Further training with Julia has also been arranged for 18.12.07, when Julia will observe a ‘typical’ Panel in the morning and then provide feedback and draft an action plan for improvements in the afternoon.

Both Adam Dalal and Christine Hedley have attended Adoption 22 training for new Panel members and Cllr Tony Lee is also due to attend in the near future.

Mike Hancock has also attended ‘Stage 1’ Child Protection Training.

At the Panel meeting in June Kim Kneale gave an indication of the process in relation to Care Proceedings and brought a ‘Court bundle’ to Panel to illustrate the degree of reporting and evidencing necessary to achieve the Care Order.

At the Panel meeting in August, the Panel discussed the feedback received from presenting social workers and adopters who have attended Panel. The feedback was from the majority, very positive especially in relation to the pre-panel questions and the organisation of the Panel. The waiting area and facilities for visiting social workers was commented on as an area for improvement.

Adoption agency Business

the tables below illustrate the agency’s adoption activity over the past 6 months.

Children

Period / Panel Recommendations
for: / Children
Subsequently
Placed / Adop. Orders
Granted in
this period
Best Interest / Should Be Placed for Adoption /

Freeing / Placement Order

/ Adop
Allow / Matched / Placed / Disruptions
Occurred
1/4/03 – 30/9/03 / 13 / 11 / 2 / 11 / 9 / 2 / 16
1/10/03 –31/3/04 / 9 / 9 / 0 / 7 / 7 / 4 / 9
1/4/04 – 30/9/04 / 14 / 14 / 2 / 9 / 6 / 0 / 6
1/10/04 – 31/3/05 / 15 / 15 / 3 / 9 / 11 / 1 / 12
1/4/05 – 30/9/05 / 14 / 13 / 1 / 11 / 11 / 1 / 9
1/10/05 – 31/3/06 / 11 / 10 / 0 / 14 / 11 / 2* + 2 / 11
1/4/06 – 30/9/06 / 13 / 13 / N/A / 13 / 12 / 0 / 16
1/10/06 – 31/3/07 / 15 / 15 / N/A / 12 / 12 / 0 / 17
1/4/07 – 30/9/07 / 11 / 11 / N/A / 13 / 14 / 0 / 10

* During introductions

Source of Placement of the children

Period / Own / OLA / OTHER VOL / CONS / ADOPTION 22 (from 1.4.06) / CONS /
ADOPTION 22 / VOL / TOTAL
1/4/03 – 30/9/03 / 4 / 0 / 1 / 3 / 1 / 9
1/10/03 – 31/3/04 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 3 / 4 / 7
1/4/04 – 30/9/04 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 4 / 1 / 6
1/10/04 – 31/3/05 / 2 / 2 / 0 / 6 / 1 / 11
1/4/05 – 30/9/05 / 1 / 5 / 0 / 4 / 1 / 11
1/10/05 – 31/3/06 / 1 / 3 / 2 / 4 / 1 / 11
1/4/06 – 30/9/06 / 4 / 1 / 0 / 5 / 2 / 12
1/10/06 – 31/3/07 / 5 / 2 / 0 / 5 / 0 / 12
1/4/07 – 30/9/07 / 4 / 0 / 0 / 8 / 2 / 14

Adoptive Applicants

Date / No. of Families
Approved / No. of Prior
Consideration
Cases /
Brief Report / No. of Change of Approval
Cases / Update / Annual Review / Removal
from
Adop Reg.
1/4/03 – 30/9/03 / 4 / 0 / 2 / 1
1/10/03 – 31/3/04 / 5 / 1 / 1 / 2
1/4/04 – 30/9/04 / 2 / 1 / 0 / 0
1/10/04 – 31/3/05 / 5 / 0 / 0 / 0
1/4/05 – 30/9/05 / 5 / 0 / 0 / 1
1/10/05 – 31/3/06 / 6 / 0 / 1 / 0
1/4/06 – 30/9/06 / 5 / 0 / 0 / 2
1/10/06 – 31/3/07 / 5 / 0 / 3 / 0
1/4/07 – 30/9/07 / 6 / 0 / 0 / 1

Agency Staff

Adoption Team

Mandy Williams Team Manager

Carol Nowell Senior Social Worker

Ann Hearne Social Worker

Prith Shori Social Worker

Emma Weaver Adoption Support Social Worker – 3 days per week

Angela WalmsleyCasual worker – to cover some Adoption Support duties

Permanence Team

Rosemary Lister Team Manager

Kathryn Clayton Senior Practitioner

Olwen Kay Senior Practitioner

Phil Tingle Social Worker

Kerry Byatt Social Worker

Ann Prescott Social Worker

Rachael LuptonSocial Worker

Jane Himsworth Social Worker – currently on maternity leave

Both teams are well established, with substantial experience in adoption and permanence planning.

Recruitment initiatives

In this period, an Open Day was held at The Hilton Hotel, Blackpool on 6.6.07 in order to recruit both foster carers and adopters. A further event is planned for November 2007, to utilise the national publicity for National Adoption Week.

In July, the BBC also ran a TV campaign on fostering and adoption entitled ‘Family Wanted’. Adoption and Fostering was the theme in a number of their drama productions and they broadcast a special programme each evening for a week. These featured a particular aspect of adoption or fostering each evening and highlighted the search for a family for a particular child or sibling group. A Blackpool child was featured in the publication produced for the programme and on their website. However, unfortunately we were not successful in identifying a family for him. The Adoption Team also attended Open Day events sponsored by the BBC in both Liverpool and Manchester.

On the 6th October 2007, an entire supplement of ‘The Guardian’ newspaper was sponsored by Adoption 22 as a recruitment tool. This featured numerous interesting articles on adoption, but sadly this failed to produce enquiries from potential adoptive parents. The Blackpool Adoption Team manned the telephone enquiry line for the 2nd day of the response arrangement. Each of the 22 agencies are to be given a number of the supplements to use for their own recruitment purposes.

Adoption 22 also held its second Adoption Exchange Day on 11th July 2007. This day was well attended by agencies and their prospective adopters and we were successful in identifying adopters as a result and also in identifying a child as a link for one of our adopters.

Adoption Support

Following Emma Weaver’s return from maternity leave in August 2007, the 4th edition of our newsletter was produced and distributed to adopters.

Unfortunately, our planned support group for 29.7.07 was cancelled, due to so many people being away on holiday and our wish for as many as possible to hear our guest speaker, Dr Suzanne Bradbury. This was rearranged for 18.10.07 and was extremely well attended. Suzanne concentrated on behavioural issues for adopted children on this occasion. The feedback has been very positive.

In addition, we held our annual adoption support outing on 2nd September 2007, which on this occasion was to ‘Gulliver’s World’. This was an extremely positive event and friendships have been forged between adopters and children alike. We were also successful in negotiating a separate lunch area for our party, which was a huge success, especially when the ‘Gulliver’s World’ characters made a guest appearance!

Conclusion

Adoption continues to be considered as an alternative for children who cannot remain within their extended family. The recruitment and assessment of prospective adopters is being prioritised by the Adoption Team in an attempt to address the imbalance between the families we approve and the numbers of children we place. For example in this period, we have approved six families, yet placed fourteen children for adoption.

We do however continue to achieve high standards of practice that is recognised across the region.

Mandy Williams

Adoption Team Manager & Agency Adviser

November 2007

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