Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided the Cabinet with an outline of a proposal to develop a Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) in line with Government expectations for adoption services.

This report had been considered by the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 6 October 2016 and its comments were set out in section 8 of the report.

The report highlighted to the Cabinet that, as members of the South East Adoption Consortium, Medway Council, the London Borough of Bexley and Kent County Council already shared information about children needing adoption and adopters waiting for children. It was noted that, due to the strong relationship already established, the Council had been in dialogue with these local authorities regarding the formation of an RAA.

In addition, the Department of Education had expressed an interest in models that could deal with 200 children per year. The report explained that officers believed that Medway, Bexley and Kent authorities working together could achieve this.

Reasons:

There had been an expectation that local authorities would begin planning, developing and working with partners to shape their RAA. Central government’s commitment to this approach was such that the Education & Adoption Act 2016 gave power to the government to direct a local authority to enter into a RAA if it had not done so by 2017.

Failure for Medway to enter into an agreed RAA could result in central government determining which RAA the Local Authority would have to become part of and as such would remove the Local Authorities decision making powers.