Adoption

Cumberland Council are not currently part of a regional adoption agency having moved away from Adopt Coast to Coast . This said, it has not prevented us from achieving permanence through adoption for the children and young people of Cumberland. We recognise the national shift and position set out in the care review and are currently working towards our partnership in a regional adoption agency (RAA). 

It is important that we, as a local authority ensure we have a clear focus on permanence through adoption and how we ensure adoption is achieved by removing barriers for our children across the region. Equally it is essential that we continue to ensure whilst there are enough adoptive parents and families, we are focused on the quality of the match with children from across the region to achieve permanence. 

As part of our move towards being in a RAA we will ensure adoptive families have access to a wide range of support services that are offered through a core regional offer as a well as a localised support. Underpinning this will be an extensive training programme, co-produced and ran with adopters who are available to support and develop our adoption community. 

Improve sufficiency through: 

• establish a regional adoption agency which Cumberland Council are part of
• analysis of adoption breakdowns to ascertain whether there are any practice challenges or additional support required to support stability. Working with other regional adoption agencies to map trends and develop services which reduce the number of breakdowns
• a review of our Early Permanence support and learning from the Early Permanence Panel to inform future work and timescales for permanence 
• review and develop our current arrangements for the recruitment and assessment of BAME and LGBTQ+ prospective adopters to ensure that are engaging effectively with these communities