Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Social Services which presented the performance of the South East Wales Adoption Service (SEWAS) and the National Adoption Service (NAS) for 2019/20.

The Service Manager, South East Wales Adoption Service spoke to the report and highlighted the main points contained therein.  The key areas of the report covered:-

•        Children placed and waiting for adoption;

•        Demand for adoptive placements and adopter recruitment;

•        Life journey materials; and

•        Adoption Support.

The National Adoption Service (NAS) was formed in 2014 with the remit to improve recruitment, waiting times for children and improve options support.

Shortage of Adopters

In relation to recruitment of adopters a Member said that now a Recruitment Officer was in post, the Authority needed to be proactive in its attempts to recruit adopters, there needed to be some form of advertising to attract people to visit the website i.e. adverts on roundabouts etc.  The Service Manager said that improvements to the website had been undertaken and the combination of social media and the website were attracting visits and also mentioned that a national campaign had taken place in October.  The Head of Children’s Services said SEWAS had a clear plan of attending events to raise awareness in the community throughout the year, unfortunately a lot of those events had been cancelled due to the pandemic.

The Chair proposed that to meet the needs of the service further advertising options for recruitment of adopters be explored. 

The Committee AGREED this course of action.

A Member enquired what support was in place for adopters in relation to training.  The Service Manager advised Members that there was a four day full training programme before the assessment started.

In relation to the shortage of adopters, a Member enquired if there was a national shortage or was the shortage just in South East Wales.  The Service Manager said that some regions did better than others, but there were peaks and troughs. Some regions, after approving adopters, had delays matching adopters with children, this was not the case with SEWAS which was in part due to the quality of the assessments undertaken to get the right people, which helped to match them quickly.

The Chair and Scrutiny Members expressed their thanks to the staff and officers for all their hard work and diligence during the challenging year.

The Committee AGREED, subject to the foregoing, to recommend that the report be accepted and endorse Option 1, namely that to meet the needs of the service further advertising options for recruitment of adopters be explored.