Issue - meetings

[To receive the Adoption Service Annual Report] 

Dawn Deans, Senior Social Work Manager presented the report and highlighted key points.

With regard to point 9.1, Councillor O’Neill expressed his surprise to learn that the disrupted placement involved an eight-year-old child and queried this. The group were reassured that careful preparation for both child and adopter had been arranged prior to the placement, however there had emerged greater challenges than first anticipated.  

Emma Bennett added that there were very low numbers of disruption and all placements followed a rigorous matching process.

In reference to a question about the size of the ‘pool’ of adopters and how Wolverhampton compared to similar authorities, it was stated that there were 31 across Black Country areas and this was the same compared to others. The target for next year was 25 and this was considered achievable.

The idea of using similar algorithms used by other matchmaking software to match placements or analyse why placements work or break down was explored. It was stated that there was a marketing officer working on identifying new recruitment methods using data gathered from information viewed by service users and it was noted that the current system was adopter led. There had been a matching tool in development at one stage and it was highlighted that the Family Values Project was targeting marketing at people with certain traits / values.

It was queried what the barriers were with regard to the red rating of the adoption scorecard. One suggestion was that delays experienced with court processes could be factor as a placement order from the court was required before a placement could be progressed. It was noted that those children who were difficult to place often take longer and that in some circumstances, in particular when children in long-term foster placements were adopted by their foster family, the figures could become skewed making it appear they were in the system longer. It was noted that Wolverhampton had managed to secure particularly difficult to place children, such as over-fives or sibling groups.

Resolved:

            That the report be received and noted.