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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Proposed Structure A@H Service Head Data Analyst 0.5 fte
Business Support Manager
Adoption Support (Assessment and social work) Team Manager fte
Adoption Support (Delivery) Clinical Psychologist fte
Business Support Officers fte
Adopter Recruitment Team Manager fte
Family Finding Team Manager 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

10. 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

11. 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
120
131
144

12. 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

13. One to one sessions can be booked today
Any spare slots will be uploaded onto the website for booking
All job descriptions and person specs will be uploaded onto the 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

14. Password: STAFFad0ption@heart
Information for staff will be available throughout the consultation process on the staff area of the website:
log in details
Username: staff
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 –
wolverhampton.gov.uk