October 21, 2015
Plans to pool adoption expertise and design a new adoption agency for children in the Central Eastern Region of England have been given the green light by Government.
Following the government’s announcement yesterday, St. Francis’ Children’s Society (SFCS) is pleased to confirm that we are part of a successful bid to explore the creation of a regional adoption agency to serve over 230 children requiring adoption.
SFCS will be included in a partnership led by children’s charity Coram, together with six local authorities (Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Norfolk, Central Bedfordshire and Bedford Borough) and one other voluntary adoption agency – AdoptionPlus.
We are also in conversation with Adopt Berkshire, who are separately leading a bid to form another regional adoption agency.
The intention behind these regional adoption agencies is to bring together adoption services in local authorities to provide more efficient, combined services.
This new way of working together was proposed by the Government to tackle the enduring challenges in the current adoption system. This includes finding and assessing people who are keen to adopt, and finding families for those children who wait longest in the care system, such as older children, sibling groups, children with disabilities or additional needs, and those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
The partnerships hope to rise to the challenge and create regional agencies that bring together all the strengths of their partners and deliver a high quality adoption service across the localities. The intention is to find creative and innovative ways of delivering better services for children and families.
Announcing the successful award on behalf of the Coram-led partnership, Renuka Jeyarajah-Dent, Director of Operations for Coram said: “This coming together of statutory and voluntary agencies is innovative and visionary and is testament to our shared commitment to improving outcomes for vulnerable children. We will combine the strengths of all our partners and ensure that we do the best we can collectively for the children waiting for an adoptive family across the entire region.”
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