The Voluntary Adoption sector has a long track record of developing and providing high quality adoption support services and members are well placed to collaborate with Local Authorities in meeting their new responsibilities under the Adoption and Children Act 2002. Over the years we have worked with local authorities to place some of the most difficult children. We have also:
been totally committed to maintaining those placements
worked in long standing partnerships with service users to develop the services they need
gathered evidence from service users of the value to them of accessing services from agencies they know and who know about them
experienced consistently low disruption rates. In 2004/5 our disruption rate was 5.5%
Why do Voluntary Agencies provide adoption support services?
Many prospective adopters choose to work with Voluntary Adoption Agencies (VAAs) because they believe they are likely to receive high quality support services.
VAAs specialise in placing ‘looked after’ children who are likely to have ongoing needs. 1 in 5 of all looked after adopted children join families recruited by VAAs.
When a Local Authority purchases the adoption support module, they are buying tried and tested support services.
Adopters and young people frequently tell us they wish to access services from the agency that knows them and their history.
Whilst many adoption agencies may place children with relative ease, maintaining children in families and promoting healthy development is much more difficult. If VAAs do not offer ongoing support, demands on stretched Local Authority (LA) services will inevitably escalate. Since many children are placed out of their ‘home’ LA, the VAA services benefit not only the child and adopters, but also provide support which relieves the pressures on both sending and receiving LAs.
Adoption Support
A range of core services provided directly by CVAA agencies, including:
Initial referral point offering rapid response.
Telephone/postal advice/email information service.
Specialist assessment informed by prior knowledge of child and family.
Short term specialist interventions, usually up to 3 visits/meetings, e.g. revisiting life story work/ contact/ attachment issues/challenging behaviour/events in the birth and adoptive family.
Assistance with letterbox contact system, as and when appropriate. This may include administrative support, recording and monitoring, liaising regarding contact, e.g. advice on writing letters, help in renegotiating level of contact etc.
Counselling in preparation for tracing, intermediary services, reunion and post reunion support.
Access to workshop/support groups for members of adoptive families (this may be via own agency or the agency's membership of regional consortia etc.)
Access to/information about resources such as videos, books and specialist services.
Opportunities for networking with other adoptive families, including social events for adoptive families.
Agency up-dates for adoptive families, e.g. newsletters and AGMs.
Referral on to specialist local Psychological/Educational and Medical services.
Liaising with LEAs and schools to facilitate obtaining appropriate resources.
Individual families, adopted children and adults may use some or all of these services at different times in their lives. At the time of the adoption it is not known what services will be required in the future
"They give a service of very high
quality and are always extremely helpful to this agency. The experience and professionalism
of their workers is much appreciated."
- Service User Local Authority about Voluntary Adoption Agency
"The social worker I met remembered
me being placed with my adoptive family! It made me feel like I was talking to a relative who
was telling me about my family history. It was good talking all this through with people who
knew me and my family."
– Adopted young person.
How much does it cost?
1/6 th of the current CVAA interagency fee.
This fee is paid for each child placed, i.e. the same level of fee for each child in a sibling group.
The fee is payable at the time the Adoption Order is granted.
This is a flat fee, and entitles the adopted child and his/her adoptive parent/s to access services indefinitely.
This contributes towards CVAA member's costs of providing a global adoption support service for which the adoptive families, adopted children and adults are not charged a fee.
"It has been a wholly positive experience
- the support our social worker has given us through introductions and especially the meeting
with the birth mother has been amazing."
- Adopters
Why is the CVAA Adoption Support Fee necessary?
Voluntary Adoption Agencies (VAAs) have been innovative in developing support services, funded in the past from voluntary income. As demand and complexity have increased, so too have costs. Therefore since 1997 VAAs have secured these vital services through charging the adoption support module fee on all new placements.
Voluntary Funds still subsidise access to information and intermediary services and a range of support services for all placements made prior to 1997. These represent a vast amount of adoption support work provided without cost to local authorities.
The charge is a modest one-off fee; payable at the time the adoption order is made. This fee purchases support services for the children concerned and their adoptive families on an indefinite basis. It enables the VAAs to provide a range of services that are available at time of need.
If VAAs were not able to charge this fee, they would not be able to provide ongoing support services to the children they place. All adopted children and their families are likely to have additional support needs at different times in their lives.
Commissioning Services
In addition to the menu of core services provided by VAAs to the families and children where they were involved in the placement, many VAAs are able to support LAs in meeting their statutory responsibilities by:
contracting to provide additional services for adoptive families already known to the VAA, and/or
contracting to provide specific services for other adoptive families referred by the LA. These may include:
• Counselling adopted adults • Respite care • Managing supervised contact • Life story work • Parenting skills training for adopters • Access to Information • Independent counselling for adoptive parents • Independent counselling for birth parents/relatives • Children and young people's support groups
These services may be commissioned from VAAs by LAs on an individual basis.