Agenda item

Cabinet

1.    Approved the business case at appendix A to this report to proceed with an East London Regional Adoption Agency led by the London Borough of Havering to commence by July 2019 agree the budget commitment set out in the body of the report;

2.    Delegated authority for the implementation of the project to the Director for Children Services including but not limited to entering into partnering agreements, agreeing the final terms of any Inter-authority risk and partnership sharing agreement and agreeing and arranging TUPE of staff between the authorities.

Councillor Robert Benham, Cabinet Member for Education, Children and Families, introduced the report.

The purpose of the report is to propose a model for the future delivery of East London’s Regional Adoption Agency.

It is proposed that the East London Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) is created through combining the adoption services for the four East London Boroughs of Havering, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Barking and Dagenham.

These agencies wish to build on the success of their existing services to improve performance in meeting the needs of children who require permanence through adoption, by bringing together the best practice from each authority within the RAA. This proposal forms part of an overarching project to develop four RAAs across London.

Each of the four RAA’s will have a host/lead authority. It is proposed that Havering will be the lead authority for East London. All local authorities in England are statutorily required to join a regional adoption agency by April 2020.

Following the recent news regarding Waltham Forest’s cabinet decision to join ‘Ambitious for Adoption’ an alternative Regional Adoption Agency, the report recommends a four local authority model. The remaining four local authorities are committed to establishing the model proposed in the report and full business case.

In Havering, the average annual spend for adoption services over the last three years (plus a projected spend 2017/18) was £340,929.00 this includes £27k (net) that was spent on inter-agency fees – the cost of placing a Havering child with an adopter approved outside of the adoption agency.

It was reported that under the proposed formation of an East London RAA a contribution of £313,929 is required to fund future costs within the RAA. Inter-agency fees will remain the responsibility of each Local Authority and will not form part of the budget for the RAA – a budget will be retained to cover interagency fees within each constituent Local Authority including Havering.

Each member of the RAA will need to provide a one-off contribution to the set-up costs of the RAA – these are costs that are not currently covered by individual adoption budgets including the Head of Service for the RAA, and the centralised business support function. The Havering contribution will be a one-off payment of £47,089, with the other three Local Authorities also making one-off contributions.

As the host authority, Havering will receive an income of circa £200k in the first year to cover the cost of transition, a new head of service and hosting costs.

The business case to support this model enables each Local Authority partner to reduce the amount it spends on inter-agency fees, as the RAA recruits more of its own adopters, and places more of its children with its adopters.

It was noted that alongside the reduction in expenditure, the model also projects an income that will be derived from other Local Authorities placing their children with East London Adopt carers, thus attracting a fee income to the RAA. This projected income will allow the transition costs to be tapered off to £0 in year 2 of the RAA going live. The combined effect of an inter-agency fee income (which will be retained by the East London Adopt RAA), and the reduction of inter-agency expenditure (the costs of which will be allocated proportionately, and budgetary responsibility retained by each of the constituent Local Authorities) enables the model to project a reduced overall cost of delivering adoption services over the next three years.

Reasons for the decision

In March 2016, the government announced changes to the delivery of adoption services setting a very clear direction that all local authorities’ adoption services must be delivered on a regionalised basis by 2020. The premise of regionalisation is to:

·        Increase the number of children adopted

·        Reduce the length of time children wait to be adopted

·        Improve post-adoption support services to families who have adopted

children from care

·        Reduce the number of agencies that provide adoption services thereby improving efficiency and effectiveness.

Other options considered

An options appraisal was undertaken in the initial stages of development of the Pan London model for regionalisation of adoption. This model was subsequently refined into four ‘Adopt London’ Regional adoption agencies with a central hub providing further opportunities for efficiencies of scale. The detailed modelling benefitted from experience in Yorkshire; an early adopter with a similar model:

The rationale for the pan London approach:

·        A Pan London resource for London children and families

·        4 Regional agencies providing responsive services at a local level within a recognisable geographical area

·        London boroughs who understand local need and challenges to host each agency

·        Ability to recruit adopters to meet identified need within the local area

·        Opportunities for further economies of scale through working Pan London

·        Opportunities for further funding for innovation through Practice Improvement Funding

In order to further test the proposed model consideration has been given to joining a regional adoption agency with other local providers. The only local provider who may be available for consideration is the Coram led regional adoption agency in partnership with Redbridge and other Local Authorities. The Council made an informal approach to Coram to establish whether they have the capacity to consider Havering as a partner and source information on the delivery model and associated costs.

The local authority model has now been determined as the preferred option due to the following factors:

·        Significant reputational risks of pulling out of the model, as the host authority at such a late stage

·        Staff across all local authorities have been involved in the design of the new system for three months and there is a commitment from those staff to make this model work

·        The likelihood that the DFE would want to claim back project development funds if the model of delivery were to change now

·        Targets for performance improvements in the East London model will achieve better outcomes and larger scale efficiencies.

Cabinet

1.    Approved the business case at appendix A to this report to proceed with an East London Regional Adoption Agency led by the London Borough of Havering to commence by July 2019 agree the budget commitment set out in the body of the report;

2.    Delegated authority for the implementation of the project to the Director for Children Services including but not limited to entering into partnering agreements, agreeing the final terms of any Inter-authority risk and partnership sharing agreement and agreeing and arranging TUPE of staff between the authorities.