Hackney London Borough Council Adoption Service

Hackney London Borough Council Adoption Service Inspection report for la adoption agency

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SC055128 Unique reference number 8 December 2008 Inspection date Paul Clark Inspector Key Type of Inspection

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London Borough of Hackney Address Directorate of Social Services 205 Morning Lane LONDON E9 6JX 020 8356 4779 Telephone number

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Email

London Borough of Hackney Registered person Marie Ologbosere Registered manager Paul Owen Responsible individual 5 January 2008 Date of last inspection .

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Email

This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Email

You can obtain copies of The Children Act 2004, Every Child Matters and The National Minimum Standards for Children's Services from: The Stationery Office (TSO) PO Box 29, St Cripins, Duke Street, Norwich, NR3 1GN. Tel: 0870 600 5522. Online ordering: www.tso.co.uk/bookshop

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About this inspection

The purpose of this inspection is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. The inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. This report details the main strengths and any areas for improvement identified during the inspection. The judgements included in the report are made in relation to the outcome for children set out in the Children Act 2004 and relevant National Minimum Standards for the establishment.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is strong Good: this aspect of the provision is sound Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is not good enough Inadequate: 3 of 9 Inspection Report: Hackney London Borough Council Adoption Service, 8 December 2008

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Brief description of the service

The Adoption Service in the London Borough of Hackney is part of the Children and Young People's Services Department. The structure of the service has been reorganised since the last Inspection following the implementation of the Council's 'Reclaiming Social Work' strategy. The Adoption Service comprises of two 'Units' of specialist teams of practitioners, each managed by a Consultant Social Worker; a 'Family Finding' team of social workers managed by a Team Manager; and an 'Adoption Support' team which has a member who acts as the Adoption Services Support Advisor (ASSA) and a member who is the designated trainer of the service. The 'Adoption Support' team is managed by a Group Manager who also has direct management of the Adoption Service and who stands as the Registered Manager. A Head of Service oversees and monitors the overall service and stands as the Responsible Individual of the service. The

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Brief description of the service

Council have been advised that they should notify Ofsted in writing of the names of the Registered Manager and Responsible Individual.

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Brief description of the service

An independently chaired Adoption Panel meets monthly to make recommendations to the Agency Decision Maker about the approval of adopters, young people in need of adoption and whether proposed 'matches' of adopters and young people are appropriate.

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Brief description of the service

The Council have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the Post Adoption Centre (PAC) to offer independent support to adopters, birth parents and adopted young people.

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Brief description of the service

The London Borough of Hackney Adoption Service is a member of the North East London Consortium of Adoption Services.

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Summary

This announced inspection found that the safety and wellbeing of children using the Adoption Service is ensured by the provision of effective management and procedural systems. The service is operated by a well trained staff group which supports children, adopters and birth parents appropriately. The overall quality rating is good. This is an overview of what the inspector found during the inspection.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The Statement of Purpose and Children's Guide have been reviewed and updated.

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Improvements since the last inspection

A comprehensive training programme for staff is now in place.

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Improvements since the last inspection

Each child now has an individual case record and these can only be accessed electronically by password protected means.

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Improvements since the last inspection

Systems are now in place to seek the views of prospective adopters at all stages of the preparation and assessment process.

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Improvements since the last inspection

A system is in place to ensure that adopters are made aware of their duty to inform the agency if a child dies in childhood. 4 of 9 Inspection Report: Hackney London Borough Council Adoption Service, 8 December 2008 There is now a comprehensive strategy in place for working with birth parents.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The Panel Members handbook now contains written guidance on the declaring of interests.

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Improvements since the last inspection

A written protocol on the role of specialist advisors is now contained in the Panel Handbook.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is not judged. There are no national minimum standards under this outcome group.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is good. The inspection found that there are good systems, policies and procedures in place to guide practitioners in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children using the service.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The service has good systems to ensure that children are appropriately matched with adopters. Hackney is a member of the North East London Consortium of Adoption Services which gives children and adopters a greater range of appropriate matches. Approved adopters come from a range of ethnic groups representative of the needs of the children requiring placement. Additionally, Hackney have a 'Family Finding' website where children needing a placement can be advertised nationally and prospective adopters can apply online to express an interest. The service does not discriminate on the type of adopters applying for approval and the assessments of prospective adopters use a nationally recognised methodology which is fair and even handed. One of the assessments being considered by the Adoption Panel lacked professional depth and rigour and another showed numerous grammatical and chronological errors. The monitoring

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

of assessments and the quality of recording needs greater attention. However, this is not indicative of general bad practice within the Borough since the vast majority of assessments seen were of a good standard.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Open evenings and preparation groups for prospective adopters provide them with a wealth of relevant information and training about adoption. Adopters commented on how valuable and informative they found these. The preparation and assessments of prospective adopters before being considered by Panel appears to be timely. However, there is no recording system in place to ensure that the time between application and being heard by Panel does not exceed the recommended eight months.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The Adoption Panel is independently chaired and its constitution is clearly spelt out. The Panel membership is ethnically diverse and there is a medical and legal expert who attends each monthly Panel. The Registered Manager of the service is a qualified social worker and is registered with the General Social Care Council. She also has a management qualification and has many years practice and management experience in childcare. The Registered Manager also acts as the Panel Advisor. Members of the Panel have an annual review where their training and developmental needs are addressed. There was evidence that the Panel decision making was robust. The Agency Decision Maker makes judgements about the Panel's recommendations without delay. It was noted that the Agency Decision Maker may consult the Panel Advisor where there is insufficient evidence in the Panel minutes. A record of this consultation is not

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

taken to provide evidence of impartiality. 5 of 9 Inspection Report: Hackney London Borough Council Adoption Service, 8 December 2008 Staff are recruited and vetted appropriately. There is a comprehensive staff training programme in place to ensure that they have access to the necessary skills required to operate the adoption service effectively.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

A record of complaints received by the service in the last 12 months was seen and the records of actions taken appeared to be appropriate.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Social workers carry out a health and safety check of potential adopters households at the initial visit. However, this checklist does not contain the latest British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) guidance on the danger of ornamental weapons, poisonous plants and draw cords on window blinds.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is good. The service has good arrangements in place to help and support those people affected by adoption.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

An 'Adoption Support Plan' is made following a child being matched with approved adopters. This plan details how the child's needs will be met. For example, their educational, health and behavioural needs.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

All newly approved adopters are given a years free membership to 'Adoption UK', a national support organisation providing a helpline, training and network support. The adoption service can also give financial support to adopters which includes a £500 'Setting Up' grant and a 'needs lead and means tested' adoption allowance.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The service organises 'Adoption Support Group Meetings' which adopters can attend and where there are visiting specialists to give advice and support about educational and behavioural concerns that may arise, or issues about dealing with racism.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The Borough has a 'Virtual Teaching Team' which although specifically for looked after children can be accessed by adopters for educational help and advice.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

A member of the Adoption team works as the 'Adoption Services Support Advisor' (ASSA) who oversees the provision of support services which includes, supporting, interviewing and counselling those adopted people who are tracing their birth parents, supporting birth parents and helping them with contact arrangements such as the 'Letterbox' system and organising supervised contact.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The Borough also has a 'Service Level Agreement' with the 'Post Adoption Centre' (PAC) to provide support to birth parents, adopters and young people which includes counselling support.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The Adoption service has a specialist trainer who organises the preparation groups and who trains the unit practitioners in a range of specialist skills including 'Life Story Work'.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. The Adoption Service makes good attempts to consult and involve birth parents in the adoption process where appropriate. 6 of 9 Inspection Report: Hackney London Borough Council Adoption Service, 8 December 2008 Adopters are encouraged to meet with birth parents where appropriate to try to find out as much information as possible about the child's needs, likes and dislikes . The ASSA meets with birth parents to consult them on their views about intended 'matches' where they can express their feelings about the preferred race, culture and life style of the proposed adopters.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

As previously mentioned, the service provides a 'Letterbox' contact system which is well organised and questionnaire returns indicate that this service is much appreciated by birth parents. Workers undertake supervised contact between birth parents and their children where appropriate. Also, the Borough has a SLA with the PAC to provide counselling support to birth parents.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Child permanency reports are generally well written although some pages in several reports were blank which should be filled in. For example, where a birth father is 'not known'.

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Achieving economic wellbeing

The provision is not judged. There are no national minimum standards under this outcome group.

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Organisation

The organisation is good. The promotion of equality and diversity is good. There are good organisational and management systems in place to ensure that the Adoption Service is run appropriately and efficiently.

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Organisation

A comprehensive and clearly written Statement of Purpose is in place which outlines the aims and objectives of the adoption service, it has been reviewed and updated in the past 12 months and can be made available in different languages and formats. There are two clearly written 'Young People's Guides' in place, one for younger children and one for older children. The Borough Council has a website with a page giving information on the Adoption Service and where prospective adopters can apply online.

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Organisation

There is a comprehensive 'Hackney (Pan London) Adoption Procedures' document which provides guidance and information for staff and adopters.

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Organisation

The Adoption Service actively promotes the service through recruitment and information events, publications and advertising, and by holding regular open evenings.

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Organisation

As previously mentioned, the Registered Manager of the service is suitably qualified and experienced, as are the Consultant Social Workers and Team Manager. All managers and staff receive 1:1 supervision every three weeks and there are weekly team meetings which are appropriately recorded. All managers and staff have an annual appraisal which is reviewed six monthly and which identifies their personal development and training needs. The Registered Manager conducts an annual review of the quality of the service and produces a report which is part of the agencies 'Children's Plan' and which is sent to the 'Local Children's Safeguarding Board' and to the Corporate Parenting Councillor.

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Organisation

In addition to the 'Family Finding' team and the 'Adoption Support' team, the 'Reclaiming Social Work' project has set up 'Units' of practitioners and therapists headed by consultant social workers. All social workers are professionally qualified and are registered with the General Social Care Council. 7 of 9 Inspection Report: Hackney London Borough Council Adoption Service, 8 December 2008 The Borough Council have made a decision not to pursue the route of training social workers in the Post Qualifying Award in Child Care preferring instead to look at a more advanced award. Children's practitioners within the 'Units' are supported in undertaking the Social Work Degree. The progress in this area will be a focus of the next inspection.

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Organisation

Administrative support is of a high quality and staff are well trained in the use of electronic systems. All social workers are supplied with laptops which they can use from home and which are suitably encrypted.

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Organisation

All staff personnel records evidence that appropriate vetting and recruitment practices are in place. However, Panel members files do not all contain the details required by Regulation 6 (Schedules 3 and 4) (2003).

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Organisation

All historical adoption records are now scanned and held electronically with a back-up system in place, the originals (apart from handwritten information and photographs) are shredded. A Disaster Recovery Plan is in place.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions, which must be taken so that the registered person meets the Care Standards Act 2000, The Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 and the National Minimum Standards. The Registered Provider must comply with the given timescales.

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Due date Action Standard

1 January 2009 ensure that assessments of prospective adopters are more closely monitored. Reg.22 1 January 2009 ensure that all Panel members files contain the details required by Regulation 6 (Schedules 3 and 4) (2003).

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s): • ensure a recording system is put in place to monitor any delay in the assessment process. NMS 4 • ensure that consultations between Agency Decision Maker and Panel Advisor are recorded to provide evidence of impartiality. NMS 13 • ensure that the health and safety checklists on adopter's households contains the latest British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) guidance on the danger of ornamental weapons, poisonous plants and draw cords on window blinds. NMS 32 8 of 9 Inspection Report: Hackney London Borough Council Adoption Service, 8 December 2008

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