Issue - meetings

Background:

This report set out the rationale for moving into regionalised arrangements, between Medway Council, Kent County Council and the London Borough of Bexley, for the delivery of adoption services to commence in April 2020.

The Department for Education (DfE) had mandated that all local authorities must be delivering their adoption services through a regional arrangement by April 2020 and the premise of this was to increase the number of children adopted and improve outcomes for adopted children and adoptive families as well as improve efficiency and effectiveness of adoption agencies.

The report set out the background, potential benefits and outline service delivery model, alongside the likely financial implications of entering into a regional model and sought authority to formulate the detailed design of the Regional Adoption Agency, in collaboration with the partner authorities and to complete a full business case which would be presented to the Cabinet for approval in October 2019.

Reasons:

An agreement to begin the detailed design of the model is now required as the DFE mandate states that the model must be in operation from April 2020. Undertaking the detailed design alongside the formulation of a full business case will allow the adoption agency to be set up within the mandated timescales.

A full business case will be necessary for both the executive and elected members, in order to make a final, informed decision on the viability of the model.