ARC Adoption North East Limited

Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - ARC Adoption North East Limited 1 ARC Adoption North East Limited ARC Adoption North East Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this voluntary adoption agency

This is a voluntary adoption agency which is registered to provide a range of adoption services. These include domestic and intercountry adoption services, adoption support to children and adults, birth records counselling, and intermediary work with adopted adults. The agency also recruits, prepares, assesses, and approves adopters.

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Information about this voluntary adoption agency

At the time of this inspection, the agency had 106 approved adopters and 42 children placed with their adoptive families. There are 19 approved adopters awaiting a match with a child.

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Information about this voluntary adoption agency

In the past year, and up to the time of inspection, the agency was providing adoption support to 69 families, pre-adoption support to 31 families and adoptee support to 46 adults.

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Information about this voluntary adoption agency

Inspectors spoke to several children and families during the inspection.

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outstanding

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

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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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. Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - ARC Adoption North East Limited 2 Date of last inspection: 12 December 2022

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - ARC Adoption North East Limited 3

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

This agency is forward thinking and innovative. Leaders and managers are highly ambitious for what the service can achieve for children, adopters, and adult service users. Consequently, the outcomes for children, adopters and adult service users are exceptional. Feedback from adopters and adult service users include:

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

 ‘The agency has over delivered to make sure my child thrives.’  ‘From the beginning you get a sense of passion of the agency and they really understand adoption.’  ‘From the minute I stepped into the information event, I have never looked back.’

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The agency is proactive in recruiting potential families for children. The agency has a strong appetite to understand and break down the barriers to adoption through research initiatives, as well as understanding and responding to national and local trends. This, along with a well-established and effective enquiry process, and ambitious marketing plan mean that the number of prospective adopters approaching the agency is healthy.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The experience of prospective adopters and adopters is overwhelmingly positive, and this means that they recommend the service to others. Prospective adopters and adopters speak highly about the training and preparation that they receive throughout their adoption journey. This helps them to understand the impact of children’s early experiences and how best to care for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

Prospective adopters benefit from a supportive yet rigorous assessment process. Assessing social workers are curious and diligent in exploring the strengths and challenges individual to each family. The analysis and evaluation by social workers are thorough, and recommendations regarding approval are evidence based. This supports the adoption panel members to make decisions about the suitability of adopters.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

Matching of children with adoptive parents is robust and includes specialist input from a clinical psychologist. This helps children to receive care from adults that can meet their individual needs and promote their identity. In addition, the agency’s commitment to promoting children to maintain life-long links with their birth families is well embedded and informed by research.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

There is a huge focus by the agency on securing permanence for children and keeping families together. The range and quality of pre- and post-adoption support provided by the agency is incredible. In addition, the agency offers highly tailored packages of support through its links with local and national initiatives. The support that children and adopters receive from the agency is lifelong. Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - ARC Adoption North East Limited 4 Children are supported to make progress in all areas of their lives due to the support that the agency provides. For example, the agency has recruited an education advisor who provides direct support to adopters to assist them to navigate any challenges their children are experiencing with their education and learning. The education advisor also undertakes development work with schools to help them to understand the needs of adopted children.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

There is a strong feeling of family within this agency. It operates an open-door policy for children and adopters where they can drop into the office to speak with staff or call the agency as needed. In addition, the agency provides opportunities for children and families to enjoy a range of activities such as family days out, beach walks and fundraising events. These events are always well attended and support children and families to come together.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The agency facilitates a range of groups for children and adopters. For example, the Children’s Group supports children to come together monthly, and children enjoy the opportunity to meet up with other children who have been adopted. Some children have taken part in a production with a theatre group which enabled them to share their experiences of adoption.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

Children and adopters are encouraged by the agency to share their views to help the agency to further develop. Children can confidently share their suggestions about activities they would like to take part in and also contribute to the questions that the adoption panel members ask prospective adopters. Feedback from adopters has resulted in the agency refreshing its offer of peer support. This includes the creation of support groups for adopters in each geographical area and the creation of new support groups for fathers, single adopters and children who are home educated.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

Adults who are adopted and birth parents receive a swift response from the agency when they make enquiries. Their requests are dealt with in a kind and sensitive manner and adults who are adopted are fully prepared before information is shared with them. One adult adoptee described the support they received as ‘above and beyond,’ and one birth parent said, ‘when you go through adoption, everyone walks away from you, but [the agency] do not.’

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outstanding

Proactive and creative safeguarding practice by the agency means that children and adults have a strong sense of safety and well-being. For example, the agency has further developed its digital life-story platform to support children to keep in touch with their birth families safely. In addition, the help provided by the therapeutic support team has helped families to become increasingly safe.

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outstanding

Children said that the agency helps to keep them safe and spoke about how the staff have helped them. For example, one child described how one member of staff has helped them with their peer relationships in school. For another child, the Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - ARC Adoption North East Limited 5 support they have received has helped them to develop more positive coping strategies.

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outstanding

Staff have an excellent understanding of their roles and responsibilities in promoting children’s safety. They are suitably qualified and experienced and receive ongoing safeguarding training. Staff maintain effective oversight of children and families and while support is provided to adopters, staff do not lose sight of safeguarding concerns. When safeguarding concerns arise, staff work extremely well with external professionals. The manager has excellent oversight of safeguarding incidents such as allegations, and this supports him to identify any trends and any learning for the agency.

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outstanding

Where children and adopters experience unplanned endings, the agency is quick to offer continued support to adopters and ensure there is effective learning to inform practice and service development. In light of recent disruptions, the manager has commissioned bespoke training for staff, and the Agency Decision Maker is due to evaluate adoption disruptions to further support learning for the agency. In addition, the agency has refined its matching process by requesting specific assessments from placing authorities to support stability.

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outstanding

The function of the adoption panel is very effective. The panel is led by a highly experienced chair person who has extensive knowledge of safeguarding and adoption. The chair and panel members have a range of different backgrounds and expertise. Panel members receive annual appraisals and are provided with relevant training to their role. The panel administrator ensures that relevant paperwork is provided to panel members in a timely manner. This means that there is robust oversight and scrutiny of information to ensure adopters who are approved are safe and able to meet children’s needs. Equally, the Agency Decision Maker is very experienced and suitably qualified to provide clear, timely and well-reasoned decisions.

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outstanding

Staff and panel members experience a robust recruitment process that is well- embedded. This ensures that those working for the agency are suitable and committed to the agency’s safeguarding values.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The agency benefits from a stable leadership and management team, which is highly motivated to make a positive difference to children’s lives. Leaders and managers have excellent oversight of the agency, and this helps them to continually improve the adoption services that they provide to children and adults. Since the last inspection, there have been several notable developments. These include changes to the assessment pro-forma for prospective adopters and the introduction of two improved separate agreements, one for approved adopters waiting and another one for those who are matched. Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - ARC Adoption North East Limited 6 The registered manager and deputy director are inspirational and extremely child focused. They know the children and adults in the service very well and speak about them with compassion and immense pride.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The calibre of the staff is high, and staff morale is exceptional. This is reflected by the quality of the work of the agency, the high level of staff retention and the stability of the staff team. Leaders and managers are held in high regard and staff have confidence in them. Staff are firmly committed to the values and ethos of the agency and take huge pride in the work that they do. They benefit from high levels of support and access to good quality training. Reflective practice is encouraged by leaders and managers, and this ensures that there is ongoing development for staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Case records are very comprehensive and provide a detailed account of children’s and adopter’s journeys. The progress and experiences of children and their families is documented well and form a valuable part of a child’s life-story.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Feedback from external professionals, commissioners and peers is overwhelmingly positive. Partnership working is firmly embedded within the agency, and external partners report excellent working relationships with the agency and its staff. One external professional who is influential in the field of adoption stated that the agency has led the way with a range of collaborations in the North East. They said, ‘[Name of agency] is making progress because they invest the time and energy into this partnership approach locally because they see the benefit for children who need adoption.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

No requirements or recommendations have been made. Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - ARC Adoption North East Limited 7

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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 - ARC Adoption North East Limited 8

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Voluntary adoption agency details

Registered provider: ARC Adoption North East Limited

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Voluntary adoption agency details

Registered provider address: Unit 29, Business & Innovation Centre, Wearfield, Sunderland Enterprise Park, Sunderland SR5 2TA

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Voluntary adoption agency details

Responsible individual: Terence Fitzpatrick

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Voluntary adoption agency details

Email address: info@arcadoptionne.org.uk

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Inspectors

Shirin Khan, Social Care Inspector (lead) Cat Makel, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for voluntary adoption agency - ARC Adoption North East Limited 9 to 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.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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