Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service

Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 1 Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service Doncaster Children’s Services Trust Limited The Blue Building, 38–40 High Street, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN1 1DE Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this voluntary adoption agency

This voluntary adoption agency is managed by Doncaster Children’s Services Trust (DCST) which provides children’s social care services on behalf of Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council. In the last 12 months, it has approved 36 adoptive families and placed 35 children for adoption. It recruits, prepares, assesses and approves adoptive families, finds adoptive families for children referred by DCST and makes placements of children from other local authorities with its own adoptive families. The agency provides support to adoptive families and operates a letterbox facility which enables indirect contact arrangements between adopted children and their birth families. Work with adopted adults, including intermediary work and support to birth parents, is commissioned to an adoption support agency.

p.1

Information about this voluntary adoption agency

Inspection dates: 25 July to 2 August 2018

p.1

outstanding

How well children, young people and adults are helped and protected good

p.1

outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

p.1

outstanding

The voluntary adoption agency provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the voluntary adoption agency contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children, young people and adults.

p.1

outstanding

Date of previous inspection: 17 August 2015

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection : none Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 2

p.1

Key findings from this inspection

This voluntary adoption agency is outstanding because:

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 It is successful in recruiting a range of prospective adopters and undertakes thorough and robust assessments of, and provides very good preparation and support to, adopters. This ensures that they are well equipped to care for children who need families. This is supported by highly effective processes that have addressed factors causing previous delay and ensures that current assessments are carried out in a timely manner that minimises delay for adopters and children.  The adoption service works impressively well with children’s social work teams to share information and plan highly effectively. This allows the agency to make well- matched placements in a prompt and responsive manner.  The agency’s clear and positive focus on early placement planning supports the work of the trust as a whole to provide permanence for children as early as possible in their lives and to reduce the number of placements that they experience before they are

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

adopted. This is beneficial for children and is an excellent outcome for them.  The agency is highly ambitious for children and works tirelessly to find adoptive families for all children, including those who may be viewed as more difficult to find placements for.  The agency provides children and their adoptive families with excellent support before and after placement. It uses the skills of the adoption social workers to undertake assessments of children’s needs and provides therapeutic support to help them prepare for or settle into their new families.  The agency operates its large letterbox effectively and this supports a high proportion of indirect contact between adopted children and their birth families in a very supportive manner.  The agency’s leadership and management are inspirational. They have generated a culture in which children’s well-being is at the forefront of all the agency’s work.

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 The excellent strategic and operational monitoring and quality assurance of all the agency’s work means that it has an in-depth understanding of its strengths and areas for future development. This has resulted in the agency having a focus on continual development and innovation which leads to ongoing improvement in the service and outcomes provided to children.

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

The voluntary adoption agency’s areas for development:

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 There are regular delays in the undertaking of prospective adopters’ medical checks, by their own doctors, as part of the first stage of their assessment process. The agency is aware of this and takes steps to minimise these delays. However, these have not been fully effective and this means that, overall, applicants’ assessments take longer than they need to despite the timeliness of work at stage two.  The agency commissions specialist adoption support for families where this is needed. In doing this, it provides adoptive families with information about the types of therapeutic support available but is not always able to help them decide which would be the most appropriate service for their needs. This means that adoptive families are not fully supported in choosing the service that will help them the most. Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 3

p.2

Recommendations

 Ensure that stage one of the assessment process should normally take no more than two months to complete. Specifically, the agency should address the delay in the stage one process caused by the difficulty in gaining medical reports on prospective adopters from their general practitioner in a timely manner. (Statutory Guidance on Adoption paragraph 3.20)  Ensure that, where services are commissioned by an adoption agency, a three-way working relationship is developed with the adoption agency and adoption support agency working in partnership to most effectively meet the needs of the service user. Specifically, that service users receive guidance and support to select the service that is most appropriate for them. (NMS 15.1) Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 4

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The agency is highly effective and efficient in its recruitment, assessment and preparation of prospective adopters. Operational arrangements have addressed issues which have caused delay in the past and stage two of assessments are now completed in a very timely manner. One adopter said, ‘They were on top of everything and we were part of the loop.’

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The information given to new enquirers is excellent and initial screening at this stage is very thorough. This means that the agency has high levels of confidence that applicants who progress past this stage are likely to be successful in being approved as adopters. Prospective adopters’ reports are detailed, highly evaluative and focus on the applicant’s suitability and capability to parent children. These reports capture the essence of the applicants, their lives and backgrounds. One adopter said of the report, ‘How she’s written it, it’s us.’

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

High-quality preparation training, which includes input from adopters and adopted children, and very good home study work mean that adopters, when approved, are well prepared to meet children’s needs. Throughout the assessment and preparation processes, positive challenge of the work completed and robust decision making ensure that work is of excellent quality and closely supervised.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

There are regular delays in the undertaking of prospective adopters’ medical checks, by their own doctors, at stage one of their assessment process. These mean that this stage of the assessment process can become extended. The agency does take steps to address or work around this issue but these have not been fully effective. This means that, despite the agency’s prompt and efficient work throughout the process, assessments, although timely, are not completed as quickly as they could be in most cases.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The agency uses the excellent relationship it has with the children’s social work teams to give an impressive focus on early decision making to reduce delay for children and the time that they spend in care. Workers at all levels are highly child-focused and there is a strong sense of case ownership. This shows in the detailed knowledge that workers have of ‘our children’, a clear focus on permanence and the timeliness and quality of individualised work.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The focus on early permanence planning leads to outstanding outcomes for many children. The agency has placed 12 children through early permanence planning arrangements since April 2017 which is nearly one third of the total number of children placed. This means that several young children have been placed with their adopters from birth, but early planning arrangements have been used for older children too. This represents excellent outcomes for these children as it reduces the distress of different placement moves.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The agency’s work has very close working arrangements with children’s social work teams. This enables very timely and well-planned work to adopt children who are not formally Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 5 part of the early permanence planning process. Information about children who may need an adoptive family is shared with the adoption team at a very early stage to allow planning to begin. The agency’s work means that higher that national percentages of children leave care into adoption and this is particularly true for children aged over five years old. In the last year, over 70% of the children adopted waited less than 14 months between entering care to being adopted. This is an extremely positive outcome for these children.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

Despite the focus on timeliness, the agency is ambitious for children and prepared to accept that for some children it will take longer to find an adoptive family than for others. For example, for one older child with more complex needs, the agency worked strenuously over a period of 15 months to find and place him with a suitable family despite several potential adopters withdrawing during the process. In another case, the agency was successful in placing a family of three children together with adopters within a few months of a placement order being received and just over a year after the agency first became aware of, and started working with, the family.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

Great care is taken to ensure that children are adopted by families with whom they are well matched and who can meet their needs. The adoption team supports this in a range of ways, including undertaking therapeutic work with children before or after their placement and undertaking assessments to identify their needs in a family. Impressive joint working and commitment to children are evident. Information sharing is excellent and the agency works jointly with children’s social workers to consider the suitability of families for a child. One adopter said that she was grateful for ‘the skill and care used by staff to match us so successfully with our wonderful, happy little boy’.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

Child permanence reports have been given a lot of attention by the trust and they are now consistent in style and of good quality. Children’s needs, views and wishes are clearly recorded in planning documents and in their child permanence reports. This ensures that they remain at the forefront of planning and decision making. It also ensures that children have a clear source of information about themselves and their lives when they refer to the document in later life. For example, one child permanence report contained the words of a song that foster carers sang to the young child while placed with them.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The agency works effectively with children’s social workers to ensure that life story books are made available to children and their adoptive families in a timely manner. This commitment to life story books helps to ensure that children have information about themselves and their origins to refer to as they grow up.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The agency provides its adoptive families with high levels of support. As well as access to training and the provision of some in-house therapeutic support, the agency runs regular groups for adopters with younger children and a teen group for older young people. These are highly appreciated and act as a contact point through which support can be provided or needs and concerns raised. The agency supports families to secure more specialist packages of adoption support through commissioned arrangements with specialist providers. In doing so, it supports families to access financial support from the Adoption Support Fund. In doing this, the agency provides families with information about different support services or therapies that may meet their needs. However, this information is not always sufficiently comprehensive and workers do not always have detailed knowledge Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 6

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

about the therapy in question. This means that when needing to access specialist therapeutic support, people do not always receive sufficient guidance about the most appropriate service for them.

p.6

Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The agency operates a very large letterbox, which is a system for children and birth families to retain indirect contact through the exchange of letters. The agency places an impressive priority on this work and achieves outstanding levels of engagement to write letters from birth parents. This not only allows indirect contact to be maintained but also provides an additional source of support to birth parents, many of whom share concerns and receive emotional support from the letterbox coordinator.

p.6

How well children, young people and adults are helped and protected: good

Adopters are well prepared to meet children’s needs. The training provided to adopters and the assessment and preparation process that they go through ensure that they understand the difficulties and challenges that children might face. Additional training in childhood trauma and attachment is provided, which helps adopters to care for children in a way that promotes their emotional safety and well-being. One adopter said that ‘the initial training was amazing’ and that the agency arranged additional external training for them.

p.6

How well children, young people and adults are helped and protected: good

The high quality of assessments and information about children ensures that adopters understand children’s backgrounds and any issues that they may face arising from their previous experiences. The preparation of adopters includes discussion of the risks that children may be exposed to as they get older. Ongoing support sessions allow the agency’s staff to continue to monitor children’s well-being and to provide support if necessary. For example, young people value the support that they receive at the teen group and the opportunity it gives to talk issues through with the agency’s staff. Strong adoption support helps adopters to manage the challenges that children may present as they get older. This helps adopters to continue to care for children in a safe manner and to protect them from risks that they might experience.

p.6

How well children, young people and adults are helped and protected: good

The agency works very effectively with wider children’s services within good policy and procedural guidelines. Workers know children well, spend time with them and are alert to their needs. This means that they are in a good position to respond should they become aware of any risk of harm. Very effective supervision and monitoring of work done by operational and senior managers means that any potential safeguarding matters are given close oversight. Suitable procedures are in place to deal with and respond to any allegations made about adopters or staff, although none have been made since the agency was registered.

p.6

How well children, young people and adults are helped and protected: good

The agency has safe recruitment processes in place for staff, panel members and adopters. This helps to assure the suitability of these people to work with or care for children. Effective supervision and training help to ensure that workers are safe and have the skills necessary for their roles. Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 7

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers in the agency have a clear vision of excellence and innovation. This translates into a culture of high expectation of staff and commitment to children, which is supported by very strong supervision, guidance and training. Workers have high expectations of themselves and demonstrate a strong sense of case ownership and a focus on achieving the best outcomes for the children they work with. This commitment is apparent to adopters, one of whom said, ‘The confidence we have in this organisation is amazing.’

p.7

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The agency works highly effectively with children’s social work teams within a clear structural framework. This enables the adoption service to become aware, very early, of children who may need adoptive families. For example, the placement order planning process and the trust’s recording system mean that the adoption team knows the number of unborn babies they may need to work with and the potential need for an adoptive family for a child well before a placement order is made. This also allows excellent work to take place with children to help prepare them for permanence.

p.7

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

This agency uses this knowledge to inform its recruitment and assessment processes to ensure that it has sufficient adopters suited to the needs of the children who they are likely to provide families for. It is open to a wide range of adopters who can meet diverse needs. It also works well to begin to consider potential matches between children and adopters at a very early stage in case they should be needed, which reduces delay for children. Robust assessment and preparation of adopters along with high levels of support from the adoption service and children’s social workers ensure that children are well supported in their adoptive families. One adopter described the agency as providing a ‘whole community of support’.

p.7

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Decision making within the agency is impressively robust and responsive. The adoption panel is well considered and very experienced, with members who have a range of different experiences. It gives close consideration to the cases presented to it and makes clear and well-judged recommendations to the agency decision maker. The agency’s outstanding self-monitoring has resulted in changes to the decision-making process to ensure that it is responsive and timely as well as retaining its rigour. The agency’s child- focus is evident from the panel’s and decision maker’s flexible approach in situations where there is greater urgency for a decision to be made. For example, in several situations, an additional panel has been arranged to consider a match with a decision being made on the same day where necessary. This allowed the child to move straight from their birth family to the care of their adoptive family.

p.7

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The agency benefits from strong governance and excellent monitoring, audit and quality assurance processes that are highly effective at strategic and operational levels. Strategic oversight is very strong, focuses on continued improvement and drives changes through the agency. The agency works proactively to respond to external challenges, including the development of a Regional Adoption Agency, partnership working and the political environment in which it operates. It challenges itself and other services effectively through joint working arrangements to promote services that are ambitious for children. It has Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 8 clear expectations of both partner agencies and itself, both strategically and at an operational level.

p.7

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Operationally, monitoring is also very effective and outcomes driven. The agency makes highly effective use of data in auditing its work but adds to this at all levels in the organisation by using case studies and reflecting on the quality of practice provision.

p.8

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The agency is impressively self-aware. It understands its strengths and areas for further development and devises and implements effective plans to improve further. This culture of ongoing improvement is evident within the highly motivated child-focused team whose members are passionate about their work and outcomes for ‘their children’. Adoption social workers and other staff within the team are very experienced, well trained and receive excellent levels of supervision and support. They impress in their knowledge of, and commitment to, the children they work with. Work is often creative and demonstrates flexibility of roles, working in partnership and the sharing of skills and experience. The agency employs a specialist early permanence planning worker within the team who acts as an excellent point of advice, support and guidance for children’s social workers and ensures that this approach is considered for all children. This results in there being a clear

p.8

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

focus on permanence and timeliness for all children.

p.8

Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children, young people and adults. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children, young people and adults. They watched how professional staff work with children, young people, adults and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families, and adult service users. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the voluntary adoption agency knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children, young people and adults whom it is trying to help, protect and look after.

p.8

Information about this inspection

Using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’, this inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Voluntary Adoption Agencies and the Adoption Agencies (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2003, the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005, any other relevant legislation, and the national minimum standards. Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 9

p.8

Voluntary adoption agency details

Registered provider: Doncaster Children’s Services Trust Limited

p.9

Voluntary adoption agency details

Registered provider address: The Blue Building, 38–40 High Street, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN1 1DE

p.9

Inspector(s)

Stephen Smith, social care inspector (lead) Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - Doncaster Children’s Trust Adoption Service 10 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

p.9

Inspector(s)

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.10

Inspector(s)

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.10

Inspector(s)

T: 0300 123 4234 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.10