Adoption@Heart Restructure Consultation – Walsall Presenter: Alison Hinds Date: 14/01/2019 Our mission: Working as one to serve our city wolverhampton.gov.uk

Adoption@Heart Restructure Consultation Start of the consultation with staff and trade unions. The formal consultation period runs from January 17th 2019 to February 17th 2019. wolverhampton.gov.uk

Background In June 2015, the Government published a paper titled Regionalising Adoption, it set out provision for the creation of Regional Adoption Agencies. An RAA is a service delivering adoption services across multiple local authority areas. wolverhampton.gov.uk

Work started to develop our RAA Adoption@Heart in December 2015. Staff and managers in all the local authorities and Sandwell Children’s Trust have been involved in the planning and design of the new service. The new service will provide adoption services across the geographical area of the participating local authorities wolverhampton.gov.uk

Adoption@Heart Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) will: combine the adoption services for the local authority areas of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC), Sandwell MBC, Walsall MBC and City of Wolverhampton Council. The RAA is planned to go live on 1st April 2019. wolverhampton.gov.uk

The RAA will be ‘hosted’ by City of Wolverhampton Council, with the TUPE transfer of relevant staff into City of Wolverhampton Council. There will be a central Hub at Priory Green in Pendeford, helping to build the identity and culture of Adoption@Heart, with practitioners equipped to work flexibly, making use of ‘hot desk' arrangements in all local authority office bases. The development of the RAA has provided the opportunity to design a new service from top to bottom, with a whole range of new and innovative practice. wolverhampton.gov.uk

The RAA will deliver the following services: Support and challenge to child care teams in assessing children’s needs and early identification of children for whom an adoption plan is suitable. Early Permanence Placements. Child preparation and life story work. Recruitment and approval of adopters including Panel. Purchase and sale of inter-agency placements to achieve the best match. Family finding and matching. Matching Panel. Pre and post approval support for adoptive families. Birth Family support including Letterbox. Support for adopted adults – access to records and counselling. A non-agency adoption service wolverhampton.gov.uk

There will be 3 teams, each providing dedicated delivery of: Adopter Recruitment Family Finding Adoption Support Services A Panel service working alongside wolverhampton.gov.uk

Proposed Structure A@H Service Head Data Analyst 0.5 fte Business Support Manager Adoption Support (Assessment and social work) Team Manager 1.0 fte Adoption Support (Delivery) Clinical Psychologist 1.0 fte Business Support Officers 4.3 fte Adopter Recruitment Team Manager 1.0 fte Family Finding Team Manager 1.0 fte Adopter Recruitment Senior Social Worker – 1.0 fte Panel Advisors 1.5 fte Adoption Support Senior Social Worker – 1.0 fte Adoption Support Therapist 1.0 fte   Social Workers 9.0 fte   Social Workers 8.0 fte   Panel Co-ordinator 0.5 fte Social Workers 8.0 fte   Family Support Workers 4.0 fte Marketing & Communications Officer 1.0 fte   Family Support Workers 3.0 fte Panel Administrators 2.0 fte

Job titles and description Current Job Proposed job Proposed CWC grade Proposed pay (£)   Social Worker 7 35,229-39,961 Assimilated Childrens Services Support Officer Family Support Worker 5 22,401-25,463 Life Story Worker

Placement requirements Placements required 2019/20 (Year 1) 2020/21 (Year 2) 2021/22 (Year 3 onwards) Total children to be placed for adoption 150   155 160 Placed by RAA 105 70% 116 75% 128 80% Placements provided by another agency 45 30% 39 25% 32 20% Placements found by RAA for other children 15 16 Total placements to be ‘made’ by Adoption@Heart 120 131 144

Consultation timetable 17 January – 17 February 2019 Consultation period 17, 18 and 22 January Opportunity for one to one consultation with Alison Hinds 16 February Feedback from staff 19 February Consultation feedback to staff including any changes to structure 26 February Staff to complete and submit their preference forms which will have been made available 9 March Notify staff of their allocated position via their own HRs wolverhampton.gov.uk

One to one sessions can be booked today Any spare slots will be uploaded onto the Adoption@Heart website for booking All job descriptions and person specs will be uploaded onto the A@H website the proposed structure will also be available to view on the website frequently asked questions will be available on the website Any questions that are not of a personal nature will be added to the frequently asked questions area to enable everyone to view the questions and responses All such questions need to go through the HR lead for each LA wolverhampton.gov.uk

Password: STAFFad0ption@heart Information for staff will be available throughout the consultation process on the staff area of the Adoption@Heart website: www.adoptionheart.org.uk   log in details Username: staff Password: STAFFad0ption@heart This information is for employees transferring to the RAA only and must therefore not be provided to anyone else (including the log in details to the website) Alison Hinds – alison.hinds@wolverhampton.gov.uk wolverhampton.gov.uk