berkshire adoption advisory servicedemocratic.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/documents/s85888/150623...

Berkshire Adoption

Advisory Service

Annual Report 2014/15

Adoption Advisory Service 2014-2015

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Role of the service

The Berkshire Adoption Advisory Service is a joint arrangement funded by The Royal

Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Reading Borough Council, Wokingham Borough

Council, West Berkshire District Council, Bracknell Forest Borough Council and Slough

Borough Council. It was established in 1998, is hosted by the Royal Borough of Windsor and

Maidenhead and operates from a base in Windsor.

Current Team: Alyson Graham – Service Manager Gill Black – Adoption Consultant Vacancy – Project worker, contact and birth relatives (part-time) Mick Bradshaw – Project worker, contact and birth relatives (full time) Emily Jones – Administrator (full time) Denise Bance – Clerical Assistant for training and indirect contact arrangements (part-time) Dr. Gill Clark – Record Officer for closed looked after children and adoption files (1 day per week from Darwin Close, Reading)

Roles and responsibilities of the Berkshire Adoption Advisory Service (BAAS):

The management, training, recruitment and co-ordination of Berkshire Joint Adoption Panels

The Management of the Berkshire Information Exchange Service (Letterbox), including undertaking relevant administrative and professional tasks

The provision of telephone advice on enquiries covering all aspects of adoption

The provision of quality practice and procedural advice to unitary staff, managers and adoption panel members on complex adoption issues, including the dissemination of information

The management of the Berkshire database of closed ‘Looked After’ and Adopted Children’s files pre -1992, supported by a limited social work service

Providing assistance with staff, carer and panel members training needs

Providing assistance with complaints relating to adoption

Chairing adoption disruption meetings

The co-ordination of information regarding waiting adopters and children needing families

The management of the Birth Relative Service, including undertaking relevant administrative and professional tasks in providing support to birth family members when the plan for the child is adoption

The management of post adoption direct contact arrangements between adoptive families and birth families where there is no statutory local authority involvement

The provision of support and financial assistance to specific pan Berkshire adoption support initiatives, where each unitary takes the lead on one shared aspect of adoption support. (These initiatives may change according to need and in agreement with the Consortium adoption teams)

Fund and organise the following: o Two years membership of Adoption UK for all prospective adopters approved

by Berkshire Consortium of Adoption Agencies o Arrange and fund annual adopter’s conference or equivalent


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Overview

The past year has seen a number of changes and developments locally and nationally. For the second year running the number of children with a Placement Order or consent to adoption fell by 46% from 77 to 42. This is in line with the national picture. In September 2013, Sir James Mumby, President of the High Court Family Division in the case re: BS, raised concerns about the frequency with which children were being put forward for adoption and considered that adoption should be a ‘last resort’ after all other placements had been considered. This resulted in an immediate fall in the number of adoption orders and despite attempts at clarification of Re BS the number has continued to fall.

Nationally, for the first time there are now more adopters waiting than there are children for placement and for the second year Berkshire agencies have recruited more adopters than there are children who require adoption. This reduction in children numbers has impacted on Voluntary Adoption Agencies, some of whom expanded quickly over recent years in response to the adoption reform agenda. Across the country there are adopters waiting but there is still, in many areas, a mismatch between waiting adopters and the ages and needs of children waiting for placements. The challenge for agencies is to manage the expectations of waiting adopters when there are so few children available for adoption and recruiting for older children and those with additional needs remains a priority.

On 1 December 2015, the Boroughs of Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Windsor and

Maidenhead and West Berkshire established a new adoption service, Adopt Berkshire,

hosted by Windsor and Maidenhead and based in Wokingham. Previously these Boroughs

had operated with joint adoption and fostering teams. The new service is roughly the

equivalent in terms of children requiring placement to the Boroughs of Slough and Reading.

During the year, the Children and Families Act 2014 was implemented introducing a number

of reforms:

Local authorities must firstly consider placing children with family and friends carers but if

this is not appropriate attempts must be made to place a child in a Fostering for Adoption

arrangement with approved adopters;

The Act repealed the requirement that ‘due consideration’ be given to children’s racial,

religious, cultural or linguistic background when matching them with adopters in an

attempt to reduce the time that black and minority ethnic children wait for an adoptive

placement;

Adopters can share parental leave around their child’s placement and adoption leave

and pay will reflect the entitlements available to birth parents, this comes into effect from

April 2015. From 30 June 2014 flexible leave requests were extended to all employees

with a duty on an employer to consider requests in a ‘reasonable’ manner;

Adoption agencies are now required to inform adoptive parents about the adoption

support services available locally, their right to request an assessment for adoption

support and the support the council is required to provide;

Since April 2014, schools in England have received additional funding through the Pupil

Premium Plus for children adopted from care on or after 2005;

Since April 2014 the Public Law Outline, introduced in July 2013, has come into full

effect to reduce the duration of Care Proceedings.


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Plans to introduce paper free adoption panels have stalled slightly following initial agreement

on the use of Mod Gov. This is due to security issues in hosting and managing the support of

the tablets needed. This is being revisited by IT in RBWM and it is anticipated that it will be

put into place later this year.

The reduction in the number of children has meant that fewer additional adoption panels

have been required this year. It is not possible to predict whether the number of children with

an adoption plan will rise or fall over the coming year although it is probably the case that the

number will rise, it unlikely that we will see a return to the high numbers seen in previous

years.

Alyson Graham

Service Leader


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Adoption Panel

Consortium Placements

In the last year panel time was needed for 77 presentations of children for matching with

adopters. No cases were withdrawn between submission of papers and presentation to

panel. This is a significant change from the eleven matches withdrawn last year, indicating

that workers have addressed some of the issues which were resulting in the late changes

seen previously. Two matches were deferred at panel for further work to be done; neither

returned for matching with the same adopters but both children have since been successfully

matched with other adopters.

In all, 75 individual children’s matches were considered by the joint panels and agreed by

the Agency Decision Makers. This is an increase of just one on the previous year.

Of the 75 children who were matched for adoption, 24 (32%) were matched with prospective

adopters approved by their placing agency in comparison to 56% last year and 17 (28%)

children were matched with consortium adopters not approved by their own agency, in

comparison to 23% last year. In total 60% of children were matched within the consortium.

12 (16%) children were matched with adopters from a voluntary agency in comparison to 4%

last year and 18 (24%) with adopters from other local authorities, up by 8% on the previous

year.

This year has seen some of the first placements under fostering for adoption arrangements:

9 children (12%) were placed in this way, though three of these were already subject to

Placement Orders. Despite some concerns as to the potential risks involved, the positives of

early placement and a reduction in the number of moves for a child have encouraged social

workers and prospective adopters alike to embrace the initiative; and with support and

training more are feeling confident in how fostering for adoption works.

It is interesting to note that 16 children (21%), including three sibling pairs, were matched

with adopters who had met them at adoption activity days. Adoption activity days, promoted

by BAAF, enable potential and prospective adopters to spend time with children. For

children, they are an enjoyable day out with their foster carers, but for adopters they have

resulted in matches being made with children that they would not otherwise have considered

until they had experienced a degree of ‘chemistry’ and emotional connection when meeting

the child.

Adopters During the last year panel time was required for 65 sets of adopters. Two sets of adopters were withdrawn between submission of panel papers and presentation at panel. In both cases this was for concerns raised by the medical advisor to be looked at in more depth. Two were deferred for further information, neither of which has yet been re-booked.

In all, 61 sets of prospective adopters were recommended to their agency during the year, a decrease of 26.5% on the previous year when 83 were recommended for approval but it is a decrease of only 4.8% from the 65 approvals in 2012-2013.


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The vast majority of adopters (95%) were male/female couples, one (2%) was a same sex male couple, and two (3%) were single females, one of whom was seeking approval specifically in relation to a family member. 24 families (39%) already had children in the family: 6 were second time adopters, 18 had birth children (or step-children), and one family also had children placed under an SGO.

All adopters recommended by panel were subsequently approved by their Agency Decision Maker.

Although adopters are recommended only to adopt, panel gave advice to the agencies on the ages, sex, and numbers of children for whom adopters should be considered, consistent with their wishes. This supports the early identification of children for whom they wish to be considered.

Nine families (15%) were seeking approval to adopt in relation to a specific child, five (8% of total approvals) wished to adopt a foster child already in their care, two were approved in relation to a sibling of a child already placed with them, one sought approval for a family member and one was a connected person.

Where the approval was not in relation to a specific child, the panel advice was as follows:

32 (52% of total approvals) wished to adopt one child

20 (33%) wished to adopt up to 2 siblings

5 (8%) linked the age of the child they wished to adopt to the age of their birth or adopted child

10(16%) wished to be considered for children under the age of 2 years or as young as possible

12 (20%) wished to adopt a child under three years

11 (18%) wished to adopt a child under 4 years (preschool)

4 (7%) wished to adopt a child under 5 years

1 wished to adopt a child under 6 years and 1 a child under 7 years

4 (7%) would consider a broader age range if two siblings were placed

Other advice given was under 6 with a preference for 3-5 years, 2-6 years (twice), 4-8 years (twice), 4-7 years and 3-8 years and one was to be decided on further discussion with the adopters

The ethnicity of prospective adopters was as follows:

Of the 120 individuals considered and approved, 98 (82%) were white British and a further 12 (10%) were of other White backgrounds, including Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Czech, Poland, America, Germany, Spain and Sweden. Other ethnicities included Black African, Black Caribbean, Chinese, Indian and Pakistani

Of the 59 couples approved, 42 (71%) were both White British and 13 (22%) had one White British partner

Where neither partner was White British, one couple were White Australian and two were Pakistani or British Pakistani

Children for adoption

A total of 47 individual children were considered by the Agency Decision Makers for a

decision that they should be adopted. Only two children were presented to adoption panel.

40 of these children were subsequently made the subject of a Placement Order (two were


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relinquished infants, and as such there was no requirement for a Placement Order), one was

withdrawn prior to the agency decision being made, one was returned to her mother and the

others were placed with family members. In all 40 children had a Placement Order granted

and 2 had parental consent.

The following figures relate to the 47 children at the time when a decision on adoption was

sought.

28 (60%) were children aged under one year, an increase of 20% from the previous two years

7 (15%) children were aged between 12 and 24 months, remaining constant from the previous year

In all 35 (74%) children were under 2 years, a significant increase on the previous year

3 (6%) were aged between 2 and 3 years

4 (9%) were children aged between 3 and 5 years

74(75%) of the children were aged 5 years

2 (4%) were children aged 5 to 7 years

3 (6%) of the children were aged over 7 years

The oldest child with an adoption plan was aged 7 years 10 months

There were 5 sibling pairs this year, compared with 5 sibling groups of four children and 3 sibling groups of two including one set of twins the previous year

In terms of ethnicity and heritage 60% of the children, where both parents were known, were

described as White British. 28% of the children were from a dual heritage background; of

these children 79% had at least one parent who was White British, 57% had one Asian

parent, specifically Indian, Pakistani or unknown, 21% had one parent from another White

heritage (Slovak, White South African), 2 children had a Black Caribbean parent, one had a

Black African parent and two had a North African parent. All other children were from other

White European backgrounds: two had Latvian parents, and others had Czech, Polish and

Lithuanian parents.

The adoption panel gives quality assurance feedback on every case presented and this is

sent to the Agency Decision Maker for comment and for sharing with individual workers and

their managers as appropriate. Comments on the feedback from the Agency Decision Maker

are subsequently shared with the panel when these are returned. Individual reports are sent

to the six local authorities on a six monthly basis.

On the whole, the standard of reports presented to panel has been of a good standard and

the reports are evidence that in the vast majority of cases there is a thorough, rigorous,

consistent and fair approach to the assessment of the suitability of prospective adopters and

proposed placements.

The requirements of the Restrictions on the Preparation of Adoption Reports Regulations

2005 were met in all cases.

For children in care proceedings, these cases are considered by the Service Leader (Agency

Adviser) at the Berkshire Adoption Advisory Service (BAAS) and the Legal Adviser, both of

whom prepare a short report for the Agency Decision Maker who makes the decision

whether the child should be a child for adoption.


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Despite the reduction in the number of children with an adoption plan the quality of Child

Permanence Reports (CPR) has been variable and work has been needed to ensure that

they are suitable for submission to the Agency Decision Maker. Improving the standard of

these reports has proved a challenge given need to produce the CPR report in a shorter

timescale following the implementation of the Public Law Outline, the consequent timetabling

of cases in care proceedings and the difficulties in staff recruitment and retention. This has

remained a concern, and the timescales are proving difficult to meet, with the agency

advisor, legal advisor and agency decision maker at times being asked to read and prepare

reports on the CPR in as little as a few days.

Relinquished children 2014-2015

Reading Wokingham W. Berks Slough RBWM Bracknell

0 0 0 0 1 1

There were 2 relinquished children across the consortium area. Children who are considered

to be relinquished are those whose parent/parents agree to adoption AND there are no Care

Proceedings in process.

Relinquished children account for just 4% of the children for adoption.

Details of panel activity can be found in Appendix A.

Matches that did not proceed to Adoption Order

2005-2006

2006-

2007

2007-

2008

2008-2009

2009- 2010

2010-

2011

2011-2012

2012- 2013

2013-2014

2014-2015

2 1 0 2 1 0 1 3 2 2

In previous years this has been reported as a ‘disruption’; however the only recorded figures

are those that do not proceed to the adoption order. Disruptions post Adoption Order are not

routinely reported to BAAS. They can occur many years after the granting of the Adoption

Order.

In one case, the adopters decided during introductions that they no longer wished to pursue

the match – this child has remained in foster carer but is shortly due to return to panel for

matching with different adopters. The foster carers of the other child stated following panel

that they wished to be considered as possible adopters for the child, and as she had been in

placement for over a year, it was felt that an assessment should be undertaken.

Introductions had not yet begun at this point, and the prospective adopters have since been

supported to look for other children.

Alyson Graham Emily Jones

Service Leader Panel Administrator


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Birth Relative Support Service 2014 - 2015

Introduction

The Birth Relative Support Service offers an integrated, yet independent approach combined

with offering consistent support and advice to significant birth family members. The service is

accessible once adoption has been formally identified as the plan for the child. Referrals

come mainly from the child’s social worker but the service will also accept self-referrals or

referrals from other agencies such as probation and health.

Despite the significant reduction in the number of children with an adoption plan during the

year, the number of referrals to the Birth Relative Support Service only reduced by three.

This indicates a better awareness of the service within the six unitary authorities.

Referrals

Area 2012- 2013 2013-2014 2014-2015

Slough 9 4 18

RBWM 6 12 6

Bracknell 4 16 15

Wokingham 1 8 4

Reading 14 19 12

West Berks 7 8 9

TOTAL 41 67 64

There are a number of contributing factors for the increase in awareness.

Every team member at the Berkshire Adoption Advisory Service actively promotes

the service at every opportunity to social workers and other professionals.

Between April 2014 and March 2015 every social work team across Berkshire was

visited to raise the profile of the service and explain the level of support and advice

offered to birth relatives.

Numerous birth relative leaflets have been distributed over the year to a variety of

places including social work teams, Community Team for People with Learning

Difficulties (CTPLD), support centres and services for women, housing support

departments and drug and alcohol centres.

As a non-statutory service the service is dependent on how it is initially promoted to birth

relatives by the referring social worker. It is also important to be mindful that social work

teams may have a high turnover of staff with varying degrees of experience of the adoption

process. Therefore, it is fundamental that all social work teams are visited annually and have

a good understanding and accurate knowledge of how intervention by the service can

support the birth relative. This intervention may ultimately help the child through the adoption

process with gathering information for life story work and ‘wish you well’ visits, promoting

engagement and supporting contact arrangements.


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The support offered in preparing birth families for a ‘one off’ meeting with adopters is

continually promoted. The service has helped to facilitate ten of these meetings this year and

the feedback from birth relatives, social workers and adopters has been very positive. Apart

from the obvious benefits of being able to exchange information face to face it certainly

seems to help prepare the birth relatives for future letterbox contact. The positive feedback

from birth relatives is that the meeting has reassured them that their child/ren will be loved

and cared for by the adopters. They have also stated that they feel much more at ease about

writing to someone that they have met rather than a stranger.

Engagement

The engagement rate between April 2014 and March 2015 was 81% which meant 52 of the

64 people referred to the service engaged with it. This was an increase of 4% from April

2013 and March 2014. This is due to a number of factors.

Good communication/engagement systems are in place and therefore when a

referral is made details can usually be taken over the phone. The person taking the

referral will also try to ascertain what has been the most successful way to date to

contact the relative

Birth relatives are contacted by telephone at the earliest opportunity. For the majority

of people, this has proven to be the best way of setting up the initial contact as they

may have recently given their consent to be called and therefore the service is fresh

in their mind

A tenacious approach is taken to contacting people, either by telephone or letter. If

appropriate, they are contacted through other family members

The service is reliable in terms of being on time for appointments and getting back to

people when promised, demonstrating respect and commitment to supporting them

Birth family members are offered several opportunities to engage

Groups

In March 2014 a monthly birth mothers’ group was started. It initially took some months to

become established, with varying degrees of attendance. There is now a cohort of 15 birth

mothers who are sent invitations each month. The feedback received from the birth mothers

about the group has been positive. It is an ‘open’ group. This allows other mothers who have

been referred to the service to come along. The group has always been very receptive and

welcoming when anyone new attends the group.

The group provides attendees with the opportunity to talk to other birth mothers in a safe and

confidential environment. A variety of subjects have been discussed and questions asked

about the adoption process. The Berkshire Adoption Advisory Service (BAAS) letterbox

coordinator attended a group at the mothers’ request to discuss letterbox contact and how it

works. The plan is to invite more guest speakers from a variety of agencies over coming

months.

Listening to the individual experiences of the group members also helps contribute to the

development and monitoring of the birth relative service and what support and advice they

feel they need at various stages of the adoption process.


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The monthly birth fathers’ group started in November 2014 and has a cohort of seven birth

fathers who have said they would like to attend the group. Five of the fathers have attended

at least one of the sessions. It is hoped that once established it will follow the same format

as the women’s group with opportunities to invite guest speakers.

Evaluation

The service remains open to any suggestions from birth relatives and other professionals for

service improvement or development .We strive to continuously improve the service and to

shape it using the views of the service users. We are confident that the continued growth of

the birth parent groups will help us obtain regular feedback and views over the coming year.

Mick Bradshaw

Project worker

Comments from service users and social workers

“It took the weight off my shoulders.”

Birth mother’s comments about the

group

“We can talk freely. I am in the same

boat as another man who has a big

family” Birth father’s comments about

the group

“I am going through a bad time at the

moment. It’s nice to be able to talk” Birth

father’s comments about the group

“I’ve been to the group twice

and found it hard but I’m

enjoying the people here. It’s

good to be heard and to talk.”

Birth mother’s comments

about the group

“It’s great to know you’re not the only

one” Birth mother’s comments

“I have found the service to be

extremely professional yet

sensitive and so supportive to

the birth parent” Social

worker


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“It’s been very emotional. I am

very glad I went to meet the

new parents and I hope other

people will do the same. I did

feel a lot better when I got

home and thought about it”.

Birth Grandmother’s

comments on meeting

adopters

“This service is very supportive and thinking

about my feelings and views” Birth mother’s

comments

“This service has been beneficial to both me

and to the child. The birth father the service has

been supporting has clearly built up a trusting

relationship. Without hesitation I would

promote this service to other birth family

members in the future” Social Worker

“As a social worker being part

of this process for the first time

I have found this service to be

very valuable. For me knowing

that they are there to ask

questions” Social Worker


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Contact Services

The Berkshire Adoption Advisory Service supports and facilitates both indirect (Letterbox)

and direct contact for children who have been placed for adoption.

The Children and Family Act 2014 made new provisions for contact and this now provides

the Court with specific powers, particularly in relation to post-adoption contact.

The Act introduces new requirements with regard to making post-adoption Contact Orders

by the Court. These include who can be named in a Contact Order and who can make an

application for a Contact Order. Importantly the Act clarifies that contact should be decided

on by the Court, taking into consideration the welfare of the child, the potential for disruption

and the importance of the person’s relationship to the child.

Indirect Contact (Letterbox)

The table below shows the number of new Letterbox files opened in each area.

Area of Origin 2009/2010 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015

Bracknell 2 2 1 4 8 10

RBWM 8 2 7 3 8 7

Reading 13 15 12 11 19 19

Slough 7 7 8 6 11 13

West Berks 8 5 5 6 5 13

Wokingham 6 6 4 6 2 4

Other - - - - - 1

TOTAL 44 37 37 36 50 57


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The table below shows the total number of Letterboxes operated by BAAS.

Year Total number of

Letterboxes

Total number of

active Letterboxes

Total number of

closed Letterboxes

sent to Records Office

1994 28 28

1999/2000 172 172

2000/01 202 202

2001/02 254 254

2002/03 279 279

2003/04 310 310

2004/05 333 333

2005/06 378 378

2006/07 423 423

2007/08 454 402 52

2008/09 499 436 63

2009/10 543 480 63

2010/11 582 487 95

2011/12 619 524 95

2012/2013 655 560 95

2013/2014 705 524 181

2014/2015 762 580 182

(No of LBs in safe – 73)


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The table below shows the total number of Letterbox files in each area and includes the closed files as there are times when these files need to be reactivated.

(*Herts, Kent, Leicester, Surrey)

This service has continued to grow and 57 new ‘Letterbox’ arrangements have been added

this year, almost 15% growth from the previous year. Numbers should, if you take in to

account the numbers of children where the plan has been adoption, be higher, however

Letterbox can take time to be set up.

The need for support from the service in setting up Letterbox exchanges has increased, and

training is offered to assist social workers with this task.

Letterbox without photographs has not increased at the level of the previous year, however

some arrangements have changed and photographs being included have been discounted

at the time of activation. Facebook remains the major factor in the decision making regarding

inclusion of photographs, and the risk of social media sharing has not decreased. Although

in some individual cases photographs have been added at a later date when Letterbox has

been established. There will always remain conflicting views as to whether including

photographs reassures some birth family members and lessens a need to trace, or whether

they increase the need to search and gain some more information so decisions need to be

made on an individual basis based on risk assessment.

Birth family members are also accessing the service for support and advice with their initial

Letterbox exchange and this has contributed to a rise in the need of social worker time to

fulfil this role.

Mediation relating to the content of letters between adopters and birth family members

continues to be needed. This includes the content of letters, the inclusion of photographs,

not understanding of the purpose of Letterbox, or how the service works. There has been a

Area of Origin Total LB in

2011/2012

Total LB in

2012/1013

Total LB in

2013/2014

Total LB in

2014/2015

Bracknell 57 61 69 79

RBWM 80 83 91 98

Reading 164 175 192 211

Slough 123 129 140 153

West Berks 103 109 113 117

Wokingham 89 95 97 100

Other 3 3 3 4*

TOTAL 619 655 705 762


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significant rise in the need for support for initial letters for in the main, birth parents when

replying to the adopters.

Direct Contact

For the period 1st April 2012 - 31st March 2015 the direct contacts are as follows:

Area 2012 - 2013 2013-2014 2014-2015

Slough 0 0 0

RBWM 2 1 1

Bracknell 2 2 2

Wokingham 1 1 1

Reading 4 2 2

West Berks 1 1 1

TOTAL 10 7 7

The numbers of direct contact arrangements facilitated by the service have remained static

and the majority of these have been in place for several years; no new referrals have been

received this year. Those facilitated work well, although they continue to need considerable

social work time for preparation, mediation, management and review.

Those contacts that have been suspended have been in relation to older children for whom

the plan for direct contact no longer meets their needs.

Reviews have taken place and plans remain as flexible as possible.

One such case where the child no longer wishes to see their birth parents face to face, the

adoptive father meets with the birth father to share information and photographs, but in a

safe and contained way; this continues to be successful.

In another case, contact between a sibling pair and their birth parents has been put on hold,

following a review of their needs. This was a difficult decision for the family to make.

Adoptive families can struggle with these decisions as they feel they have made a

commitment to the birth family and can feel guilty in asking for a review with a view to asking

for a change to be made to the arrangements.

Birth families in particular find it extremely hard to accept that there is any need for a change

and can sometimes struggle to see that it is in the best interest of their child, and feel that

they have been promised that they can see their child. The social worker has an important

part to play for all parties in such situations.


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Contact arrangements are always reviewed after each contact, both planned and those that

have not taken place and those that continue to happen, to ensure that the contact meets

the needs of each child and that plans are adapted accordingly.

The service has also supported renewed contact between young people, their adopters and

the birth family members, in consultation with the Local Authorities. This required very

careful preparation and support, and these have been successful.

Workers for BAAS continue to be willing to offer advice and guidance to social workers

during the care planning stages.

Gill Black

Adoption Consultant


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Training

From April 2014 to March 2015 the BAAS delivered 22 days of training for the Berkshire

Consortium of Adoption Agencies:

Involving the Wider Family and Friends 04/04/14, 14/11/14, 20/03/15

Adoption CPR training (West Berks) 09/04/14

Panel training (Two Stage Assessment Process)

09/05/14

CPR training (Reading) 20/05/14

Effective and Evidenced-based Report Writing

06/06/14, 30/07/14

Effective & Evidence-based Report Writing & CPRs (RBWM)

10/06/14

1 day Trauma and Recovery course 09, 20 and 30/06/14

Explaining Adoption to Children 04/07/14

Contact in Adoption 11/07/14

Adopters’ Conference 17/07/14

Panel Member Induction 13/11/14

Adoption Forums – training for staff and Panel Members

Fostering For Adoption 22/01/15

Beyond the Adoption Order 10/02/15

Effective and Evidenced-based Report Writing

27/02/15

All the feedback from the attendees was analysed and any suggestions for improvement

were considered and implemented if thought to be appropriate, or if a similar number of

people made the same suggestion.

Feedback from a significant number of attendees had suggested some educational-based

training, and as a result the next conference will now be presented by Louise Bomber who is

a teacher and attachment support therapist. This year’s Adoption Conference speaker was

Julie Hudson a Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapist, who has been trained and is

supervised by Dan Hughes.

Overall all the courses were rated good, very good or excellent with no courses being rated

as average or poor.

The adoption forums have proved useful training events and they have been an opportunity

for adopters, panel members and staff working within adoption to gain an understanding of

recent developments and research findings.


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The course for the wider family and friends of prospective adopters continues to be

increasingly popular and is always very well attended and additional courses are regularly

added to meet the demand.

Feedback and comment

Feedback and comment is requested on every course in order to improve the service offered

and to ensure that courses are providing what is needed by attendees, below is a sample of

the feedback received over the past year.

Gill Black

Adoption Consultant

Course feedback – Involving the Wider Family and Friends (for relatives/friends of

prospective adopters)

Trauma and Recovery Course

…..very relaxed and felt

comfortable to ask questions

Extremely helpful

and informative.

Helped me to understand how

adoption works and how to handle

situations and how to support the

adoptive parents.

An encouraging and

reassuring course for

family and friends

Really great

session….

Wonderful!

The course has been very useful

and one of the best I have been

on. The presenter was very

knowledgeable and had

answers and strategies for all to

use Adopter

Thought provoking and useful

topic on brain development and

trauma Anonymous

The mix of people on this course

really works i.e. foster carers, social

workers and adopters. It makes it

very interesting from all aspects. The

course has been very useful and one

of the best I have done. Foster carer

Thoroughly enjoyable, thank you

– adoptive parent

This course is excellent,

very good for all

professionals working

with children

Worker I have done other courses/lots

of reading but the impact of the

delivery of the ‘brain’ facts was

great.

Adoptive parent

Loved the resilience work really

useful

And particularly loved the chart –

Brilliant and brilliantly run


20

Explaining Adoption to children

Given us the confidence to

move forward and not be

anxious and ‘hung up’ on

talking about adoption and

family history adopter

Clear advice as

to how to

explain simply

adopter

Very useful

course

adopter


21

Access to records

Enquiries

Activity right across county during the last twelve months has been lower than last year, 236

compared with 337 last year, despite all teams reporting that they are busy. Last year the

proportion of adoption enquiries was 38%, rising this year to 44%. Enquiries from bodies

other than the six authorities, the joint legal team and the police for example, were reported

to be high last year and this trend continues, still reflecting the attention that has been

focused recently on allegations of abuse and the reopening of ‘cold’ cases.

Numbers of enquiries for each Authority over two years

For a third year a note has been kept of the decade of birth of the people whose records are

requested across both adoption and in care enquiries. Once again demand comes from right

across the age range. The highest numbers by far are from, or about, people born in the

1960s, followed by those in the 1970s and 1980s. The spread is from people born during the

First World War to those born in the first decade of this century.

Court records

Progress on listing the contents of the boxes of court files deposited by East Berks

Magistrates Court has had to take second place this year but, even so, there are now only

three boxes of Bracknell files left to do. Listing of files from Slough, Windsor and

Maidenhead is complete. Recording is on an Excel spreadsheet and it is possible that the IT

teams will be able to bulk load them onto the database. The spreadsheet has become a new

resource to use for enquiries.

Procedures

As reported last year the quality of listing and of packing of boxes, the knowledge of where

to send them and how to arrange this, continued to suggest that the procedures written and

distributed are not reaching those who actually do the work. All procedures relating to these

topics have been updated and circulated but in the mean time the quality of material coming

in is a matter for considerable concern. The Family Search procedure has also been revised

to take account of restrictions to applying for certificates of the registration of births

marriages and death and to the changes in accessing wills and probate material.

Year Slough RBWM Wokingham Bracknell Reading West

Berks AAS Other Total

2013-14 33 26 31 64 73 51 1 58 337

2014-15 15 26 25 14 45 33 14 64 236


22

Depositions

A major problem arose when more than 100 boxes of adoption-related files from one local

authority were sent to the Modern Records Unit rather than to BAAS. This was only

discovered by chance but involved two full working days to withdraw them from their

warehouse locations and to move them to safe keeping. Work continues on re-ordering

these files. Procedures for using Darwin Close have been further amended and re-

circulated. There is a backlog for data input generally because of the volume of files coming

in, both old and recent files.

Storage space

The quantity of records deposited was exceptionally high this year (120 boxes) with the

promise of more to come. All the space gained by the transfer of children’s homes material is

rapidly being filled.

Dr Gillian Clark

Record Officer


23

APPENDIX A

Total Consortium Activity 2014-2015

(Figures in brackets for includes cases presented more than once, cases withdrawn after papers were submitted and cases which were deferred and did not return)

Year 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-

2011

2011-2012 2012-

2013

2013-

2014

2014-

2015

Children

for

placement

42 (56) 58 (67) 105

(119)

90 (108) 99 (103) 77 *1

presented

to panel

42 (47)

*2

(presented

to panel

Matches 46 (52) 37(43) 54

(58)

44 (48) 62 (65) 74 (85) 75 (77)

Adopters 35 (43) 46(53) 34 (38) 38 (43) 65 (70) 83 (9) 61 (65)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

Nu

mb

er o

f ca

ses

Consortium Activity 2008-2015

Children

Matches

Adopters


24

Summary of Placements made 01/04/2014 to 31/03/2015

Adopters

Ch

ild

ren

Bracknell RBWM Reading Slough West Berks

Wokingham Other LA

VAA Total

Bracknell 3 1 1 4 9

RBWM 2 2 1 2 2 9

Reading 1 1 10 2 11 2 27

Slough 1 2 6 1 2 5 4 21

West Berks 1 2 2 1 6

Wokingham 2 1 3

Total 7 6 13 8 6 5 18 12 75

Activity per Individual Agency

Numbers in brackets include cases which were deferred, withdrawn or did not proceed to

Placement Order

Children for Adoption between 01/04/2014 and 31/03/2015

Reading Wokingham West Berks Slough RBWM Bracknell

6 (7) 0 (1) 10 17 2 (3) *1

presented to panel

7 (9) *1

presented to panel

Children Matched Between 01/04/2014 and 31/03/2015


27 (28) 3 6 21 9 (10) 9

Approval of Prospective Adopters between 01/04/2013 and 31/03/2014


11 (13) 12 8 13 (14) 9(10) 8

Matches not proceeding to placement/AO between 01/04/2014 and 31/03/2015


0 0 0 2 0 0


25

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Children Matches Adopters

2014-15 Activity

Reading

Wokingham

West Berks

Bracknell

Slough

RBWM

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