HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL Agenda Item No. CHILDREN’S SERVICES & CORPORATE PARENTING CABINET PANEL WEDNESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2008 AT 10.00 a.m. 4

ADOPTION AGENCY ANNUAL REPORT 2007/2008

Report of the Director of Children, Schools and Families

Author: Brenda Simmonds - Head of Adoption Service Tel: 01992 588739

Executive Member:- Jane Pitman

1. Purpose of report

(a) To present a report concerning the activity of the Adoption Agency. (b) To inform members of national developments in adoption and the implications for Hertfordshire. (c) To present the report of the independent chairs of the adoption panel.

2. Summary

2.1 This report has been written by the Head of Adoption Service and includes a report from the two independent chairs of the Adoption Panel. It outlines the activity of the adoption service for the year 1 April 2007 to the 31 March 2008. It also outlines some of the issues raised during the year 2007/2008 and the challenges for the service in the forthcoming year 2008/2009.

2.2 Successes for the year

 We have met the target for the percentage of children adopted from the looked after population.

 The quality of the assessments of children and the selection and matching process have been significantly improved.

 The children’s evenings for prospective adopters continue to provide increased numbers of our harder to place children with placements within the county and with our own adopters.

 The adoption support team has managed to support a wide variety of complex referrals with no significant waiting list.

2.3 Challenges during the Year 2007/2008

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 1  Supporting, assessing and preparing children with complex needs for permanent placement in adoptive homes within the current social work establishment.

 The issues of staff retention and pressure of work has affected the previous stability of the adoption service workforce.

 To encourage adopters from ethnic communities and those willing to take children with disabilities was a considerable challenge and it was in relation to this group of children that out of county placements were made.

 In relation to non-agency but nevertheless statutory reports such as those required for step parents these were difficulty to prioritise alongside children who are currently looked after.

Recommendation

The Panel are invited to receive the Annual Report of the Fostering Service.

3. Background and National Context

3.1Section 3 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, which follows on from the Adoption Act 1976, makes it a duty of every Local Authority to establish and maintain in its area an adoption service designed to meet the needs of children, their birth parents or guardians and those who may adopt a child.

3.2Very few babies are placed for adoption and those that do often have very specific medical needs. The children who become available for adoption increasingly have very complex care histories, which in the majority of cases have resulted in compulsory removal from their birth families and contested Care Proceedings under Section 31 of the Children Act 1989. These children are deemed to be suffering significant harm as a result of abuse or neglect in their birth families and come to adoption placements with varying degrees of emotional damage. Some have complex physical or learning difficulties. There has been an increase in this group of children in the past year requiring placement.

3.3When children cannot live with their birth families, the Local Authority has a duty to provide them, where appropriate, with a permanent family home. An Adoption Order is the most legally secure order that a court can make. It is irrevocable and severs the parental responsibility of the birth parents. The Adoption and Children Act 2002 received Royal Assent in November 2002, and was fully implemented on the 30th December 2005, with further regulations and guidance published in

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 2 2005 and 2006. With this new legislation the government has further developed their vision that adoption continues to provide an important service for children, offering positive and beneficial outcomes. Furthermore, adoption is recognised as providing children with a unique opportunity for a fresh start as permanent members of a new family, enjoying the sense of security and well-being so far denied them in their young lives.

3.4Whilst the Local Authority has a duty to make all reasonable efforts to rehabilitate the child with his or her family, it is important to strike the right balance between planning for rehabilitation and planning for permanence outside the family. Time is not on the child’s side and therefore, efforts to rehabilitate a child should be realistic and mindful of the child’s timescale. Where it is clear that a child cannot be returned to their birth family, decisions about placing children with permanent families should be taken as a matter of priority.

4. Relevant Additional Information

4.1 The Adoption Service is managed by the Head of Adoption Service and comprises two Adoption Teams, East and West. Each team is staffed by 1 FTE manager, 6.45 FTE adoption social workers and 2.48 admin assistants. A Family Finding team, dedicated to finding placements for hard to place children, has been created and consists of 0.8 FTE manager, 3 FTE home finding social workers and 2 FTE professional assistants, taking work across the whole county.

4.2 The Adoption Agency is administered by the Adoption Panel administrator, directly managed by Head of Adoption Service and based at County Hall.

4.3 In addition, an Adoption Support Service providing statutory adoption support takes referrals for the whole of the county and staffed by 1 FTE manager, 5 FTE social workers and 1 FTE administrative support.

4.4 The Adoption Service provides the following core services in accordance with National Adoption and National Minimum Standards

(a) Recruitment, assessment, training and support of adopters, ensuring that the County Council meets the National Standards and targets set within the Performance Assessment Framework and Quality Protects.

(b) Arrangements for selection and matching children with adopters.

(c) Provision of an adoption support service pre and post adoption.

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 3 (d) Provision of financial support in relation to adoption and from January 2007 Special Guardianship Orders.

(e) Provision of an overseas adoption service.

(f) Management of statutory adoption panels.

(g) Statutory assessment, supervision and provision of court reports in step-parent and non-agency adoptions.

(h) Advising officers and members on all aspects of service provision and relevant legislation.

5. Panel Issues

5.1The decision maker role has moved from Jonathan Fisher, Head of Placement and Provider services to Alison Twynam, Head of Policy and Practice in order to provide a more independent “off line” decision making process. The panel adviser is the Head of the Adoption Service, supported by the adoption managers where required due to annual leave.

5.2 A monthly management of the adoption panel meeting which reviews the administration of the panel, the quality of reports and any new legislative or procedural requirements continued to be held during 2007/2008. Social workers and their managers have attended these meetings to enhance knowledge of roles and expectations across Children, Schools and Families in relation to the adoption panel.

5.3In accordance with Minimum Standards all panel members attended over 75% of panel meetings. All decisions were taken within timescales.

5.4Following our recruitment drive in 2007, three new independent members have joined the adoption panel. They have been excellent additions to panel and their contributions and commitment have been highly valued. Sadly Tanis Kent a highly respected County Councillor and member of the East Adoption panel passed away over the last year and has been replaced by Sue Jones, who also has experience of serving on the fostering panel.

6. General Issues

6.1 The quality of the child’s permanence report presented to panel continues to be variable and while there have been examples of good practice a significant number of cases required amendments and were unsatisfactory. There have also been a number of deferments (12 ), in cases where the panel was unable to proceed because of care planning or quality issues. A quality assurance report was provided on quarterly basis over 2007/2008, and is now provided on a monthly basis to the Head of Policy and Practice and Children’s Service Managers. A pilot program run by the adoption service has been

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 4 running in the west of the county working with social workers on a range of issues which would improve the quality of care planning and CPR reports.

6.2 The involvement of birth families in the adoption process continues to be variable and a practice note on this subject has now been issued. The plan is during the forthcoming year to provide a DVD for social workers on how to engage birth parents.

6.3 Targeting increased participation of children in the process is being considered by the Adoption Standards post and training has been given as part of the pilot on ways of working directly with children. The service will be providing materials to social workers to assist in doing this important piece of work.

6.4 Clearly analysed assessments of children’s needs in relation to placement for adoption continue to be an area of concern. In the absence of these being available the Family Finding team has been completing assessments before placement in order to inform selection and matching. There is however, a capacity issue as the establishment of the Family Finding team does not allow for this to take place in every case. Discussions are taking place with our partners both internal and external as to how we might develop a more multi disciplinary focus for this work.

7. Panel Administration

7.1 The volume of work continues to be high during the year and this was particularly noticeable as four panels were cancelled. One because a panel was not quorate, and three because of papers or cases not being available on the day. There was an approximate 10% decrease in children’s cases coming to the adoption panel for the consideration of the decision to place for adoption. A number of Local Authorities are reporting a similar trend and it is thought that this reflects the increase use of Special Guardianship Orders in the court. There was an increase in the number of matches which should enable us to meet the target for the PAF C23 for the year 2008/2009, although if the number of Best Interests continue to decline we would see a fall in this figure for 2009/2010. Additional administrative support has continued to be required and will be placed on a permanent footing for the year 2008/2009, using existing administrative support resources.

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 5 Panel Activity Data

2006/2007 2007/2008

Number of panels 46 43

Number of best interest 77 68

Prospective adopters 50 46

Number of matches 56 59

Brief reports 4 4

De-registrations 0 0

Consultation/change of Care 3 2 Plan

8. Panel Training

8.1 There was training for panel members in June and November 2007 on legal and medical issues which was well attended by panel members. There was also a day’s training on 17 July, on trauma to which panel members were invited, alongside social work staff from across the family placement service.

8.2 The training on trauma delivered by Kate Cairns has been well received by both professional staff and adopters, and is now incorporated into a “pre-parenting” course run for adopters who are about to be matched with children.

9. Key Performance Indicators

9.1 A key performance indicator within the annual performance assessment of Local Authorities is the number of adoptions for each year (from 1 April – 31 March), expressed as a percentage of the number of children who have been looked after for more than six months. The table below indicates the PAFC23 indicator for the last three years.

2005/2006 2006/2007 2007/2008 (provisional)

7.1% 8.1% 7.4%

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 6 Although there has been a decrease over last year, this is largely accounted for by the reduction in the number of Special Guardianship Orders. (16 – 2006/2007) – (10 – 2007/2008). Unfortunately, while there were more than 10 Special Guardianship Orders made in the court arena these additional ones were in respect of children in proceedings but not looked after and therefore cannot count in the figures even though there may have been extensive CSF involvement.

10. Service Issues

Adoption Teams

10.1 The preparation and training for adopters continues to be well received by service users. The evaluation by prospective adopters of the training highlights the professionalism of the social workers and the experiences of the adopters themselves.

“the talks by the three people who had experience of adopting were most useful”

“we were very impressed by the course and the biggest ‘take away’ is that the social workers do care very much about the children and their welfare”

The second part of the preparation training known as APT was also highly valued and viewed by the participants as a consolidation of many of the issues raised in the introductory course as well as an opportunity to reflect on the children’s needs and losses in relation to their own strengths and weaknesses as potential adopters.

10.2 The adoption teams have supported 81 families pre-adoption in 2007/2008 with a total of 103 children. We are increasingly finding that these families require intensive support. The complexity of these placements continues to impact on the time available for new assessments.

10.3 Unfortunately the number of approvals of adopters did not reach the target, although on closer examination the number of assessments started would have done so. There has been a high fall out rate in assessments this year. Each of these come with its own reasons and with no discernable pattern except that adoption regulations and guidance mean that it is increasingly difficult to turn applicants away at an early stage without having gone a considerable way through the assessment process.

10.4 The adoption teams are also key workers in providing a service for birth parents who wish to voluntarily relinquish their babies for adoption. There have been 9 such cases over the year, 5 went forward for adoption with the remaining 4 being successful rehabilitated home. These are often rewarding cases but require intensive support and assessment both in relation to those that go on for adoption and those that return home.

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 7 10.5 With regard to inter-country work there were 3 assessments during 2007/2008. There are five children for whom we are responsible for their welfare, supervision up to the making of the adoption order, four of these children are from Russia and one is from Guatemala. The political context around inter-country adoption has changed significantly over the last year. DCSF has withdrawn agreements from some countries and China, perhaps the most common of sending countries has stringently reduced numbers and access. Two families have been considering moving to domestic adoption and a number of others have resulted in highly complex cases in the high court.

10.6 Requests for non-agency reports such as step-parents wishing to adopt have continued during 2007/2008 and unfortunately, there is now a considerable waiting list. The staff are working to full capacity and the priority remains those children looked after by the department. However, it is acknowledged that is not a satisfactory situation and discussions are underway as to how this dilemma might be resolved.

11. Special Guardianship Orders

11.1 These appear to continue to be favoured by the courts in a variety of situations, most commonly kinship care. They are often extremely complex involving acrimonious contact between family members. As these cases are held in the adoption support team it is impacting significantly on the resources within this service.

12. Adoption Support Team 2007 - 2008

Statistics

Number of referrals for post adoption support 48 assessments:

Current number of families being supported: 55

Open contact support 17

Number of letterbox exchanges: 560 PAA files, 1000 + exchanges Families referred to Play Therapist 32

Special Guardianship Orders 10

Number of families using psychologist support 24

Number of adult adoptees: referred from GRO for 53 adoption counselling:

Direct requests for records/advice in tracing 46

Requests from agencies for records 66

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 8 Birth relative enquiries 32

12.1 Training

The Adoption Support team has continued to run a regular programme of monthly support, training and activity events (Please see Appendix 1). These covered various topics.

Newsletter This was published twice in the year.

12.2 There were also some very successful outcomes to birth/adoptive family intermediary family contact and reunions. One adoptive parent whose 14 year old met her birth mother wrote an excellent article for the newsletter and paid tribute to the social workers involved. “The Adoption Support Team were great, they kept in close contact at all times, the team had organised things so well I couldn’t have asked for more and I certainly couldn’t have done it without their help”

There were several successful reunions of adult adoptees and relatives, as a result of the Intermediary service for birth relatives. One adopted adult wrote to say “thank you so much for finding M. I don’t know how I can ever thank you enough. You do an amazing job and I wanted to let you know you have made two people incredibly happy”

A birth mother who was reunited with her 40 year old son wrote “If it were not for you I would never be this happy. My friends and family ask me how I feel and I can only describe it as complete”.

12.3 Future Concerns and Issues for the Adoption Support Team

We are increasingly seeing families with a huge need for support for their children, many of whom have attachment disorders. While many families gain from the support offered by the service and are committed to the children, there are occasions where the child’s behaviour is such that the families feel they cannot continue and we have to refer this potential family breakdown to the area teams as a child in need. Commonly these difficulties arise in early to middle teenage years and the profile of these children is that they are often amongst the most challenging group of young people cared for by the Local Authority.

Securing adequate support in schools for adopted children can be problematic, as once adopted they do not receive the same priority status as ‘children looked after’, although their needs are often considerable. Discussions are underway to look at a more creative, holistic and responsive way to deal with this issue. The Head of Adoption has had a number of meetings with David Ring, Head of

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 9 Access to Education, to look at the feasibility of integrated assessments and support for adoptive families with admissions and special needs.

12.4 The impact of the Special Guardianship Orders is also concerning. Many involve very young children and families will need considerable long-term support, both financial and practical. The Special Guardians are unlikely to have had training or preparation in the same way adoptive families have, and often have different needs, particularly if they are members of the birth family. As the numbers increase, these may take up a disproportionate amount of time from the Adoption Support service.

12.5 One of the most significant developments for the letter-box is the increase in the number of complex contact arrangements, often between several siblings and at frequent intervals. As one can see from the statistics this is now running at over 1000 exchanges, and although currently managed by .8 of an administrative support worker with social worker assistance, this will clearly require further dedicated support if it continues to increase in this way.

12.6 The diversity of the adoption support service brings with it considerable emotional pressure on the social work staff. Working with birth families in crisis, alongside long term work and preventative work with all those involved in adoption requires resilience and energy. During 2007/2008 the team manager was absent for a number of months due to health issues and although she returned she resigned in May 2008. The team is currently without a manager although it is noted that an appointment will be made in the near future.

12.7 In accordance with the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and adoption support regulations 2005, we are required to provide access for adoptive and birth families to an independent post-adoption service in addition to that provided by the Local Authority. Previously we have used two providers, the Post Adoption Centre in London and “Links”, a consortium arrangement through Barnardos. Having reviewed the service provided and in order to secure best value the adoption service is currently in the midst of a tendering process. It is hoped that this will be completed by the autumn.

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 10 13. Family Finding Team

13.1 During 2007/2008, 56 children were matched with adoptive families and during 2007/2008 59 children were placed with adoptive families, of these over two thirds are what are termed “harder to place” children, either due to age, ethnicity, emotional and behavioural difficulties or disability. As more children are ‘provisionally’ matched with adopters coming through the assessment process at an earlier stage through the children’s evenings and the newsletters, there has been increased pressure on the adoption teams already at capacity.

13.2 All children waiting for placement are tracked for any delay at a weekly meeting which includes the managers and Head of Service. This has resulted in all children having a clear placement plan. Over 70 households attended the children’s evenings and the evaluation of this has been very positive, ”mini children’s “ evenings have been inaugurated which have a more relaxed format and enable workers and adopters to spend time together discussing the children waiting for placement, as well as providing a space for adopters to talk to one another.

13.3 Only 7 children were placed out of county during 2007/2008, which meets the target of 80% to be placed with Hertfordshire County Council adoptees. Some children have possibly waited longer for an in house placement but the agency view is that this is in the end both a more appropriate match and also offers better support to the placement.

13.4 The assessment of children for permanent placement is crucial to the success of any selection, match and subsequent placement. It is however, a highly skilled piece of work often needing consideration of complex sibling relationships. In order to provide maximum stability for children this should be available for every child needing permanence. Various assessment models are currently being considered but if we are to achieve this goal for every child there would need to be a further increase in social work establishment.

13.5 We are meeting the adoption standard timescale in relation to the time taken from placement order to placement in 50% of cases. However, in order to minimise delay for children it is important to increase this further. Some of the delay is due to competing pressures on social workers caseloads, as well as the transfer of cases between teams following the final hearing. Consideration is being given to whether if cases were transferred to the adoption team at the point of the placement order this would reduce delay for children at this crucial time. However, the service would like to increase this further for the forthcoming year. Consideration of how this might be achieved, including moving the case responsibility to the adoption service from the time of the placement order, is currently under discussion and will form part of the review of the adoption services within Hertfordshire.

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 11 14. Recruitment

14.1 Information evenings are held monthly at County Hall, and during 2007/2008, 161 households attended the initial training course and .the adopter’s preparation training. There has been an improvement in the number of applicants willing to take older and more challenging children, however, the issue of finding placements for BME children remains a challenge for Hertfordshire County Council, as it does throughout the country. Some specific advertising was carried out during the year which it is hoped increased awareness of the need for adopters from the BME communities. This will need further specific work during 2008/2009.

15. Challenges for 2008/2009

15.1 The recruitment of adopters able to meet the needs of those children requiring adoptive homes remains a challenge for the service. This is particularly relevant for placements of children with disabilities and those from ethnic communities. 15.2 The introduction of the public law outline will affect how plans for adoption are processed through the courts. It is envisaged that there will be a tension in the permanency planning process and timetabling presentations to the adoption panel. However, as this legislation only came into effect on the 1st April 2008, more time will need to elapse before the implications can be fully understood.

15.3 The use of Special Guardianship Orders or in particular the support for these orders remains a challenge for the service. The contact arrangements often agreed in court without prior agreement with the adoption support team can be very onerous and require highly skilled support. The team is working at full capacity with little space to accommodate further requests.

15.4 The move for the adoption service to the A1 site at Stevenage will be completed by the end of August 2008. The fact that an adoption centre has not as yet been achieved is already causing significant difficulties for the psychologists and therapists, as finding consistent, suitable accommodation for direct work with children is proving a considerable challenge. It also leads to a fragmented service to families. In particular, birth families will experience a loss of facilities they have previously been able to access. The current position with regard to the adoption centre is that active consideration is being given as part of the family centre review, to the re provision of one of the establishments as an adoption centre The financial cost for this will be met within existing resources.

15.5 The quality of the child’s permanence report needs to improve over the next year if we are to meet our obligations under the standards and regulations.

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 12 15.6 During 2008/2009 the possibility of “concurrent” fast track placements coming to the adoption panel as well as applications for Special Guardianship Orders will be discussed. There are implications for the service in administration and costs although it is believed there would be benefits for the children in our care.

16 Financial Implications

16.1 The percentage of children placed for adoption, or under Special Guardianship Orders has been maintained at a level within the APA category “good”. This is heartening but also represents an increase in spending within the allowance budget.

16.2 Discussions with the legal department have resulted in a change to the criteria for allowances following complaints to the Local Authority Ombudsman. While in general we only pay allowances for those children previously looked after, agreement has had to be given following contentious cases to support for children not previously looked after, providing certain criteria are met.

16.3 One of the tasks for the service for 2008/2009 is to move those children currently in long term, “looked after” placements into orders outside of the care system such as Residence or Special Guardianship Orders. It is hoped to make up to 25 such placements in the next year.

16.4 The inter-agency budget was slightly overspent this year due to placements for some children with very complex needs or for children from the BME community. The panel administration of the adoption agency was under pressure during 2007/2008 with a resulting overspend. However, this has been addressed in part by reallocating duties across the administration team in the year 2008/2009. Other costs have not been able to be reduced due to the increased workload coming to the adoption panel.

Appendix 1

The number of families attending training in 2007/2008 was 67, and the evaluation by service users is extremely positive. The topics included, Attachment, Life Story books, The importance of play, Building attachments, Telling and Contact post – 18.

Webster-Stratton parenting course

The Adoption Support team has run two courses of 12 weeks during the year, in September and January, and a total of 20 families attended. This, as can be seen below is highly valued by adopters.

“Great to meet other parents and the course leaders were very helpful” “It has given me the tools to use which has helped my relationship with C” “This course was fantastic” Activities and Events

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 13 A number of other more creative ways of engaging families were also carried out in the year.

The Picnic is the most popular event of the year, held in September. Approximately 65 families attended. Feedback from families and staff is very good, and last year a member of the Adoption Panel responded to the invitation and was very impressed, commenting

“I thought the party was absolutely terrific: the organisation, the though behind the activities, and the relationship between staff and families very touching. Hertfordshire County Council as it’s best” A “Messy Play” activity day was also held in April 2007. Approximately 12 families attended. The adoptive parents found it helpful to meet other parents, and the children enjoyed it immensely. Comments included: “Well organised” “Good Location” “Relaxed environment” “Children enjoyed it a lot”

A “Circus Skills” workshop was held in October 2007 for 6 – 9 year olds. Approximately 14 children accompanied by a parent came. Children’s comments afterwards were very good “It was fun” “Wish it was longer” “I loved it” And from adults “Well organised” “Do it again”

Coffee mornings for adopters are now running well in two areas and we hope to encourage more families to start these in other locations.

The “Men’s Group” for adoptive fathers runs three times a year, and although numbers are small it appears to be valued by those who attend.

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 14 Independent Chairs’ Report – Adoption Panels – 2007/2008

We have continued to find chairing the East and West Adoption Panels a rewarding experience as we begin our second 3 year term of office. Recently, we have been pleased to have been included in the Agency’s considerable efforts to achieve targets and improve performance, working with senior managers and Heads of Service, both in the Adoption Service and in area teams.

Achievements and challenges to the service have been detailed elsewhere in this report and we are happy to endorse them. On this occasion, we should like to reflect on the experience of meeting prospective adopters, reading the accounts of the lives of children and birth families and listening to the accounts of social workers who present cases at panel.

As we have reported to committee in earlier reports, this is invariably a moving experience and we often feel privileged to have been involved in the process of seeking to improve life chances for children, which supports birth families, and to observe the generosity of spirit and persistence of potential adopters to parent other people’s children and create stable and loving families.

We do not think that these perhaps self-evident statements can be said too often because successful outcomes in this area of the County Council’s activities are so important to the lives of individuals and to the social health of our communities. We read accounts of children whose lives begin extremely unpromisingly, compromised by the effects of drugs, poverty, domestic violence and neglect. Panels are sometimes greatly moved by the experiences of young parents who, themselves often the victims of childhood harm are unable to parent loved children and experience their deeply felt loss.

The stories of the roads to adoption taken by prospective adopters touch our hearts. At the same time, we are sometimes dumbfounded by what man is prepared to do to man.

Each case and every file represents a vivid human story, often presenting a most complex challenge to our social workers. We would find it difficult to identify a more worthwhile investment for the County Council to make in terms of individuals and for the benefits to society. It is vital that children make attachments to loving adults; that they are protected from abuse; that they are nurtured; that they are supported at school; that they receive the medical care that they may require. It is essential that adopters receive initial training and continued support as they undertake their role and sometimes find their resolve tested. And birth families also need to have their vulnerabilities understood and to be helped to acknowledge the factors which have led them to their loss.

As independent but experienced panel members, we continue to view these human situations freshly and value highly the skilled work we see as, for example, social workers prepare with fosters carers a child to move to an

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 15 adoptive home, facilitate for prospective adopters their writing of a difficult life story or keep before them the primary needs of a child as a contested court process unfolds. Although we have been critical of the presentation of paper work in the past, we are pleased to acknowledge good work which we have seen, some instances of which have been of the highest order. We hope and trust that the Council will do all it can to support the work of all those social workers involved in adoption, mindful of the profound contribution it makes to the future of our society.

We continue to be grateful for the expert advice and support of panel advisers and the administration team.

Lynnette Smith – Chair, West Panel; John Bailey – Chair, East Panel

073b35ccfd2c5f2dc00ff1ab785558a7.doc 16