Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided details of an update on progress to develop a Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) in line with the Government’s expectations for Adoption Services and Cabinet decision 124/2016, on 25 October 2016, which, agreed in principle, to enter into formal dialogue, with a view to the establishment of the RAA with the local authority partners, London Borough of Bexley and Kent County Council, subject to formal agreement from the Cabinet on the findings.

The report stated that the three local authorities had increased partnership working to meet the longer term plan to implement an RAA. To date, the plan had not secured government funding to support this development, therefore, this was being completed within existing resources.

The report also provided details of key areas which had been progressed since October 2016 including new governance arrangements, undertaking of financial benchmarking to understand budget allocation, partnership working to ascertain agreed financial principles and integrating social work practice with shared policies and procedures.

Reasons:

To enable continued partnership working with Kent County Council and the London Borough of Bexley to progress the development of a Regional Adoption Agency in line with the Government’s expectations for Adoption Services.