Issue - meetings

Report by Executive Director Terence Herbert.

Cllr Peter Hutton, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Safeguarding, presented a report which provided an interim six-month report about the performance of the Adoption Service of Wiltshire Council.

Cllr Hutton explained that it was a statutory requirement that the Adoption Service provided regular assurance reports to the Council. This is achieved through annual year-end report, supported by a brief six-month update relating to quarters 1 and 2. The report detailed the following two main areas of focus, as there was a need for continual improvement regarding the Adoption Service:

·         The need for timeliness of the assessment of adopters and their match with a child to be adopted; and

·         The need for timeliness of the adoption of children with complex needs.

The report recognised the Government’s commitment to improving adoption services in terms of numbers of children being adopted and the timeliness of matches for children requiring adoptive placements, the development of the Adoption Service, within the broader context of the development and implementation of Adoption West. 

Cllr Hutton referred to the annual comparative performance figures and how they are measured using the Adoption Scorecard, which for Wiltshire Council showed overall continued improvement.

Cllr John Hubbard, Chair of the Children’s Select Committee, welcomed the report and informed the Cabinet that Adoption West, the regional response to developing collaborative arrangements to improve performance by 6 local authorities, would now be the subject of a new scrutiny regime between the 6 partners.  Cllr Hubbard explained that he was currently the interim Chair of the Interim Scrutiny Committee and that Wiltshire Council would be allocated 2 places on the Committee.

Resolved:    That the Adoption Service 2018 Q1-2 6 month report be noted and adopted.

Reason for Decision:

Wiltshire Council is an Adoption Agency registered with Ofsted. The 2014

Adoption Minimum Standards (25.6) and 2013 Statutory Guidance (3.93 and

5.39) describe the information that is required to be regularly reported to the

executive side of the local authority to provide assurance that the adoption

agency is complying with the conditions of registration whilst being effective

and achieving good outcomes for children and service users.