chapter nine: delivering the new approach
This chapter sets out how the Government will deliver the changes set out in this White Paper, and the timescale for delivery.
Delivery plan
9.1 Delivering the ambitious plans set out in this White Paper will take time, as fundamental change always does. To deliver the vision and the new national target, the Government will take a range of action over the next 12 months as the table below shows:
Timing Action
Spring 2001
• Confirm the final National Adoption Standards and consult on a Code of Practice to support them.
• Funding for improvements to adoption services comes on stream through the Quality Protects grant (April).
• Unify court advisory and support services for children by establishing the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS).
• Start to identify best practice and develop a framework for the provision of post-placement and post-adoption support.
• Add a further element to the target on decreasing delays in adoption in the light of the final National Adoption Standards.
• Award the contract for the Adoption Register for England and Wales.
• Begin to work with councils and the voluntary sector to consider better ways of joint working to meet the needs of children, including developing consortia.
Summer 2001
• Establish the Adoption Register for England and Wales to ensure that all children for whom adoption is the plan are given the opportunity to be matched with suitable adoptive parents.
• Consult on the registration standards to be used by the National Care Standards Commission.
• Work with councils to identify the best way for central government to support local recruitment activity and develop a programme of action.
• Review the way adoption allowances are treated in the tax and benefit systems to ensure consistency, where appropriate.
• Resolve the delays associated with funding adoption cases and improve the consistency of practice on public funding from the Legal Services Commission and other funding.
• Begin a fundamental review of the assessment process and the operation of adoption panels.
• Encourage councils to improve their post-adoption support services.
Autumn 2001
• Work with councils and adoption agencies to improve the recruitment and assessment process so
adopters are better prepared and given better support and information throughout the process.
• Work with a few selected councils to consider the relative benefits of long-term costs of looked after children compared to upfront costs of adoptions.
• Publish final Code of Practice.
Winter 2001
During 2001
• Adoption and Permanence Taskforce to carry out substantive visits to 11 councils.
• Seek legislation to overhaul and modernise the legal framework for adoption. Among other things this will:
make the needs of children paramount in making decisions about their future;
provide for new options for permanence including a new 'special guardianship' order which will provide more security and permanence than foster care;
set out a legal framework to ensure consistent provision of post-placement and post-adoption support;
establish an independent review mechanism for the process of assessing prospective adopters;
give all families adopting children, especially those who have been looked after, a right to an assessment for post-placement support;
provide adopted people with consistency of access to information about their family history and their adoption.
• Improve recruitment and training of social workers to ensure staff have the skills necessary to meet the needs of looked after children.
• Develop guidance on issues emerging from the White Paper.
• Develop more specific professional training and development for CAFCASS officers, and produce new training packages for judges to support the new procedures for adoption.
• Implement a programme of action to reduce delay in children's court cases:
pilot specialist adoption courts supported by well trained staff;
provide interim guidance to the courts on case management;
pilot options for improved case management in children cases in partnership with courts, lawyers and others with an interest. The pilot will be completed and evaluated by December 2002;
change the system for allocating work to judges to make it more flexible and ensure that the judge with the right expertise is available;
consult on and implement better ways of encouraging and improving inter-agency communication and co-operation for children's court cases;
change the law to give courts the ability to fix and monitor timetables in adoption cases so that cases are dealt with at the appropriate speed; and to support better case management.
Monitoring delivery
9.2 Delivering this large agenda will produce a more effective adoption service which makes more sense to children, moves more quickly and delivers the outcome they want: a new permanent family. To monitor the implementation of these initiatives, ensure that what should be delivered is delivered and that satisfactory progress is made, the Government will use a number of performance assessment mechanisms, particularly Best Value and the performance assessment arrangements for social services. The Government will review the existing indicators and data available and introduce new information to monitor outcomes, the National Standards, the court process and other key aspects of the services. Councils will also be expected to use performance information to performance manage and improve their local services. Where services do not meet the minimum standards necessary to protect the needs of children, the Government will not hesitate to use the intervention powers available.
Conclusion
9.3 The changes in this White Paper are part of the wider programme of change in children's services. As the changes set out here are put into place, the whole system of children's services will change. The principles in this White Paper, particularly the user focus, listening to children, swift and careful planning, support for parents, consortia working, inter-agency working, and cross-boundary working, all have fundamental implications for the system as a whole. Getting it right on adoption will be an important step on the way to getting it right for all children's services.
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