Department for Education – Adoption Reform Update: August 2013

Welcome

This month’s bulletin features the fully revised statutory adoption guidance that should now be followed; an item that will be of interest to small voluntary adoption agencies; and an update on training and professional development for social workers on fostering and adoption. It reminds you of the BAAF training dates that are running over August and September and included updates from First4Adoption and the Consortium for Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA). We have also included references to a couple of items of reading material that you may find of interest and details of how to enter the National Adoption Week Awards 2013.

Adoption Statutory Guidance

•   Full revised statutory guidance is now available on the Department’s website. Amendments have been made to the   guidance in line with the regulatory changes that came into force on 1 July 2013.
•   The main changes to the guidance are:
•   a new chapter 3 covering the new adopter approval process, previously published in May but with some minor amendments, including clarification that the new process covers inter-country as well as domestic adoptions;
•   a new summary and introduction;
•   information on Fostering for Adoption 2.5-2.13 (on pages 33-35);
•   amended guidance on use of the Adoption Register 2.75 (on page 51).
•   This guidance should now be used by agencies and replaces previous guidance.

 Adoption Agencies (Miscellaneous   Amendments) Regulations 2013

•   The Government has decided that small voluntary adoption agencies (VAAs) will have to comply with the Adoption Agencies (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2013 in the same way that all other VAAs and local authorities will and that they will not be subject to the current moratorium on new domestic regulations for micro businesses (defined as companies with fewer than 10 employees).

 £16m Funding to Increase the Recruitment of Adopters by the Voluntary Adoption Agency Sector

•   The Government is significantly strengthening its support for the voluntary sector to address the national shortage of adopters.
•   The Department believes that a strong voluntary adoption agency sector is a crucial step towards the sustainable reform of the adoption system. Supported by a Government grant of £1 million over 2012-14 we have already seen significant growth in the number of adopters approved by the VAA sector. This amounts to 43% in 2012 – 2013 and it is the Department for Education’s intention to maintain and accelerate this expansion in future years. The Department is therefore announcing a further package of reforms intended to strengthen the growing role of the voluntary sector in adopter recruitment and approval.
•   The Department for Education will be providing up to £15,970,000 to support the growth of the VAA sector over 2013 – 2016 through expansion grants, start-up grants and an element of business development support, which will help VAAs develop strategies to scale-up sustainably. The grants and business support available in 2013 – 2014 will prepare the ground for the   significant expansion grants available in 2014 – 2016.
•   For further details on the VAA boost package please click here.
•   The specification and application form for the start-up grants for new VAAs will be published on Thursday 15 August 2013. Please email adoption.reform@education.gsi.gov.uk to register your interest in being sent a copy of the specification and application form.

 Voluntary Adoption Agencies increase   adopter recruitment

•   The Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA) has asked DfE to share the following update on the contribution of voluntary adoption agencies to   adopter recruitment in 2012 – 2013:

CVAA is pleased to report that the VAAs’ contribution   to the adoption sector in 2012-13 was a very successful one and the   sector achieved an increase in placements of 19% and most importantly, there is evidence of a 43% rise in approvals of prospective adopters, demonstrating a sustainable increase for the future.

These results reflect the hard-work and commitment that all the VAAs have been making. Also, at recent growth agenda workshops   delivered by CVAA there was increasing evidence of LAs and VAAs working together to address the issues highlighted in the adoption reform programme. CVAA is developing further support proposals to enhance such developments.

The table below show the headline statistics for England for 2012-13. The figures for the first quarter of 2013-14 will be available soon.

 The College of Social Work (1): Improving training and professional development for social workers on fostering and adoption

•   The Department has commissioned The College of Social Work to   develop specialist capability statements for adoption and fostering, to support the generic Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) at specialist level and improve professional practice. It is envisaged that the statements will start at Assessed & Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) level on the PCF and will set out how capability in adoption and fostering would be evidenced in nine domains of the PCF. The statement will then look at the social worker, experienced, advanced and principal social worker levels on the PCF and set out how capability builds throughout the career levels. The College is aiming to publish the statements on their website in early 2014.
•   The College is also working with Professor Gillian Schofield at the University of East Anglia to develop a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) curriculum guide covering adoption and fostering for children’s social workers, supervising social workers, Independent Reviewing Officers and social work managers. This will build on the skills and knowledge acquired during the social work degree. This guide is due to be completed around October 2013.
•   To embed this work, the Department has selected Research in Practice to develop practical training materials on fostering and adoption for social workers.  Research in Practice will work with The College to ensure that the new training materials are aligned with the new specialist capability statements. The contractor will deliver train the trainer sessions to ensure that this training can be cascaded. The work to develop the materials will begin later this summer with the train the trainer sessions   taking place at the beginning of 2014.
•   Further information will be included in future updates.

 The College of Social Work (2):   Family Justice Curriculum Guide

•   The College of Social Work have published a new family justice curriculum guide. It is a guide to providers of CPD training for social workers on public law pre-proceedings and court skills concerning the care and protection of children. The Guide can be accessed here.

 Two-Stage Adopter Approval Process

•   We have covered the two-stage adopter approval process in the last couple of updates and our July update carried details of the free seminars that DfE has contracted with BAAF to run over the Summer to support the adoption reform programme.  If anyone missed these dates but still wishes to take part, the dates for the August and September events are set out below:

Friday 2^nd August 2013   – BAAF London Office

Monday 5^th August   2013 – CCS, Bristol

Friday 9^th August 2013   – BAAF Leeds Office

Friday 16^th August   2013 – BAAF Newcastle Office

Thursday 29^th August 2013   – The Heatons, Manchester

Thursday 29^th August 2013   – BAAF Newcastle Office

Thursday 29th August   2013 – BAAF Birmingham Office

Monday 2^nd Sept 2013   – BAAF Leeds Office

Monday 2^nd Sept   2013 – BAAF London Office

Wednesday 11^th Sept   2013 – CCS, Bristol

Monday 16^th Sept 2013   – BAAF Newcastle Office

Tuesday 24^th Sept 2013   – The Heatons, Manchester

Friday 27^th Sept 2013   – BAAF London Office

Monday 30^th Sept 2013   – BAAF Birmingham Office

•   BAAF issued details and registration forms to all agencies and these can be found on the BAAF website. Any enquiries should be sent direct to BAAF, at dfetraining@baaf.org.uk.

BAAF will be running the second tranche of training between November 2013 and January 2014 and will focus on the use of Fostering for Adoption.  The dates for these events have not yet been finalised but when they are, we will include them in a future update.

 Update from First4Adoption

•   First4Adoption   have asked DfE to include the following information in this month’s update:
•   E-learning

The first e-learning module to support the two-stage process is now available – please click here to go to the module. The module looks at criteria for adoption and will help prospective adopters explore this area to ascertain if adoption is right for them.

•   Website

We have amended our website to include content about the two-stage process and have produced a summary document for prospective adopters. If you would like a copy please contact us – helpdesk@first4adoption.org.uk  If you wish to use content from the First4Adoption website please ensure that you do so with clear acknowledgement to First4Adoption and include links to our website. We will be contacting agencies over the next month to ensure that you have us listed on your website as a useful contact for adoption.

We have added a new page on our website which clearly outlines how First4Adoption can assist adoption agencies – the page can be found here.

First4Adoption has also added content to the website about concurrent planning and Fostering for Adoption, hosting a new leaflet for which explains how potential carers can decide if the process is right for them. To download the leaflet, please click here. 

 National Adoption Register for England & Wales Annual Report 2012/2013

•   The  Adoption Register Annual Report 2012/2013 includes statistics about referrals made to and placements made through the Register in its eighth year of operation as well as articles about the people involved in the process. The report can be accessed here.

Independent Review Mechanism's Annual Report

•   The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM)   has just published its Annual Report for 2012-2013. It contains statistics and analysis of the cases heard by the review panels and the implications for policy and practice in adoption and fostering.

 Article in The Times On Adoption Activity Days

•   On 18 July The Times published an article about adoption activity days (where prospective adopters have the opportunity to meet a range of children who need adoptive placements – usually children who are harder to place).

National Adoption Week Awards

•   BAAF are now accepting entries for Adoption Service, Adoption Social Worker, Adoption Picture, Adoption Champion and Supporter of the Year. The deadline is Tuesday 1st October 2013 – get involved and nominate here.

Keeping you in touch

We are sending this update to those we have contact details for and look to you to disseminate this bulletin more widely among your colleagues and members. If you do not wish to receive this update please reply to this email and we will ensure your details are removed before any further updates are circulated. If any of your colleagues would like to be added to our circulation list they should  send their name, email address and job title to adoption.REFORM@education.gsi.gov.uk.

If you have any suggestions as to how we might make these updates more useful to you – or items you would like to see – please let us know by contacting the email address above.

Department for Education
www.education.gov.uk

Department for Education

Adoption Reform Update – August 2013 (EXTRA)