Issue details

Local Authorities were directed to join a Regional Adoption Agency through the Education and Adoption Act 2016 by 2020.
The key principle behind the regionalisation of adoption services is that, on a national level, children are waiting far too long to be matched and placed with their adoptive families. By pooling resources, adoption agencies are more likely to increase the choice of prospective adopters and therefore identify matches more quickly and thus reduce the time that these children remained looked after in the care of the local authority.

As a result, the driving force for the initiative was very much to improve the outcomes for looked after children with a permanence plan of adoption. It has taken 2 years to reach a position where the four local authorities are supportive of the business case (as approved by the Key Decision Report) and are fully committed to the setup of the SYRAA, satisfied that the specification will meet the following 3 criteria:

- No reduced performance
- No increased costs
- No negative impact on the Terms and Conditions of staff.

The financial implications were covered in depth within the July 2020 Key Decision report and outline that the cost of the SYRAA will be funded by the pooled budgets of the four local authorities, and any underspend or overspend allocated equally.

The impact on staff will be minimal as none of the adoption teams will move from their current location and they will remain employees of each of the local authorities.

Formal governance of the SYRAA will be provided through the South Yorkshire Regional Adoption Agency Governance Board that will be responsible for providing oversight and challenge to the regional arrangements.

It is understood that Cabinet approvals from all Local Authorities are in place.