Council ready for launch of faster adoption process

People will find out if they can adopt in Plymouth more quickly than ever before following this month's launch of the new national two-stage adoption process.

Plymouth City Council is ready for the change in the way adoptive parents are assessed and approved, which will shorten the process by two months from start to finish from eight to six months.

Councillor Nicky Williams, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “We welcome the changes in legislation that mean we can now recruit and assess prospective adopters more quickly than ever before. We have done an incredible amount of work in preparation for the launch of the new two-stage adoption process. Our excellent adoption team has ensured that everything is ready to go.”

Stage one of the new adoption process is a two-month initial training and preparation phase, which begins when a prospective adopter registers interest with an adoption agency. It ends with the agency's decision on whether the prospective adopter can go to stage two.

All the necessary checks and references will be completed during stage one (rather than throughout the assessment process as is currently the case). Where it is considered during (or at the end of) stage one that a prospective adopter may be suitable to adopt, the agency must tell them and explain that they must confirm whether they want to go to the next stage.

Stage two is a four-month assessment, which begins when a prospective adopter confirms they want to go ahead with an assessment and ends with the agency‘s decision about the suitability of the prospective adopter to adopt a looked after child. This process will include a meeting at the beginning to go through the process of assessment and will provide any necessary training.

To manage this change Plymouth’s Adoption Team, rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted during its latest inspection in 2011, is recruiting two extra social workers - an adoption assessment social worker to help cope with the potential increase in assessments and a ‘Family Finder’ social worker to look for potential families for harder to place children. They include sibling groups of more than one child who should remain together, older children and children with disabilities.

Plymouth is currently looking for families for 41 children who will need new permanent homes as soon as all legal proceedings have been completed.

With the increased staffing levels, the Adoption Team aims to approve 53 new adopters over a 12 month period.

Fore more information about adoption visit the website www.plymouth.gov.uk/adoptforplymouth or call 01752 306800.