Jacky Slade reports on a pioneering project she has been co-ordinating which looks at the value of local authorities and voluntary agencies working together to deliver better adoption services.

Two years ago, the Department of Health approved a Section 64 Grant (available to voluntary organisations who are able to produce pioneering work with national significance) to the Catholic Children's Society, Nottingham.

The project for which the funding had been granted had the rather unusual title 'Adoption - A Quality Option' (AQUO).

In view of what was to follow, the timing of the application was an interesting, if not prophetic, forerunner of a number of strands in the recent White Paper and the Adoption Bill currently before Parliament.

As the project draws to a close, we are evaluating a new form of voluntary-statutory collaboration.

Catholic Children's Society, Nottingham's credentials for undertaking a project of this nature lie in a range of skills and experience in adoption acquired through 50 years of work with children and families.

The Agency has built up considerable knowledge and understanding about the changing needs of the three parties in adoption, the implications of placing children from local authority care and the crucial nature of post adoption services.

The government believes that joint working between councils and voluntary agencies can be a more effective way of achieving more effective recruitment and assessment of adopters, and, better organisation and service provision, as well as sharing best practice - White Paper Adoption - A New Approach

In addition, it has benefited from opportunities to view the work practices of the many local authorities it has worked with in placing these children and recently managed a successful previous research project on the service needs of young adopted people (Project 16 -18).

In its broad sense, consultancy is a means by which an organisation can effect change and development through a relationship with an outside source of knowledge or expertise.

Many commercial and public bodies use consultants to improve aspects of their service and a number of factors can make this a productive response to a need to develop one area of service or plan a strategy for change.

AQUO was designed to test a consultancy model as a means of developing and improving the adoption services offered by councils.

The Statutory Agencies involved in AQUO are Derby Social Services, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and, to a lesser extent, the London Borough of Barnet.

Each Agency identified specific areas of adoption practice, policy or procedure that would be the focus of the project. The challenge for AQUO has been in 'packaging' the experience, resources and networks of Catholic Children's Society, Notts, in a way that is helpful to the project councils in the quickest possible time.

The challenge for the councils has been in the degree to which they have been able to exploit the opportunities offered.

AQUO has been 'customised' to suit the particular needs and circumstances of each whilst ensuring any learning or material produced for one was also made available to the others. As a result, the project has developed very differently across the three councils.

There have been many different strands to AQUO in the last 18 months.

These have included conferences and work groups on post adoption service design and development; adoption panel training; facilitating a Managers Adoption Development Group and social workers from family placement and childcare teams visiting the Catholic Children's Society to view its policies, procedures and preparation group materials.

A workshop was run in July 2000 with workers from the four Agencies to share techniques and approaches in recruiting and preparing adoptive families.

Discussion documents on tracking children through to adoption have been prepared and support given to the Agency seeking to improve on timescales and avoid delay in implementing children's' plans.

The emphasis throughout has been on partnership, the sharing of best practice and the value of examining difference between the Agencies involved.

AQUO is, however, more than the sum of its parts.

It has broken out of the historical mode of statutory/voluntary relationships based on providing families for individual children.

It has exploited the overview of the voluntary agency and demonstrated what can assist and what can inhibit councils in improving adoption services.

It has challenged stereotypes and assumptions and, finally, it has confirmed what we knew at the outset: That the expertise and commitment to improvement that exists on both sides of the voluntary-statutory divide benefits from being brought together.

Moving towards a child-focused service with few resources requires creativity and a 'can do' attitude. We had both in AQUO.

We welcome questions or comments about AQUO or the consultancy and training services offered by Catholic Children's Society, Nottingham.

Contact Beverley Morris - Training and Consultancy Manager or Jacky Slade - AQUO Project Co-ordinator
Catholic Children's Society, Nottingham
7 Colwick Road
Nottingham
NG2 5FR
Tel: 0115 9558811
E-mail: project@ccsnotts.co.uk

Visit the CCS Nottingham website

See also

Raising the standard