Adoption charities 'underpaid and under threat' 1

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 3 Feb 2010

Many voluntary adoption agencies are worried they will have to close down as a new report reveals that a fractured relationship with local authorities is resulting in fewer contracts and fewer children being placed in adopted families.

Local authorities grossly underestimate the costs of placing a child, a report by think tank Policy Exchange revealed on Monday. Authorities currently pay voluntary adoption agencies £23,842 to source and match a potential adoptive home for a child, but pay only about half that to other local authorities, leading to an impression that the adoption charities are an expensive option.

However, figures released by the DCSF show that the actual cost of placing a child is £35,340 - more than one and a half times the compensation actually paid to charities.

“The inter-agency fee [paid to charities] is grossly underestimating the value of the adoption ‘market’, starving voluntary adoption agencies of financial oxygen,” the report stated.

Two-thirds of agencies interviewed for the report said they had seen a decline in the number of contracts awarded them by the mis-informed local authorities. Forty per cent said their ability to continue working was in doubt.

The report calls for local authorities to engage more with the voluntary sector, from the initial stages to placement. Local authorities need to be made more aware of the value of the adoption charities and the true cost of the service provided.

This current lack of balance and understanding in the adoption process, the report contends, has resulted in a decline in the number of children in permanent foster care who are adopted, “despite significant financial investment and considerable political will”.

Author and research fellow James Groves said: “If local authorities moved away from funding adoption services annually and instead took a five-year view then the concern over upfront costs will be removed. Doing this will allow councils to look at adoption service providers other than themselves and ensure fewer children have to stay unnecessarily in foster care.”

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Anna Sharkey
CEO
Adoption Focus - Family Society
4 Feb 2010

I have worked in a Voluntary Adoption Agency (as social worker; Team Leader; and latterly CEO) for 12 years and for 12 years before that I worked in Local Authorities as a social worker specialising in family placement work.

Local Authorities have statutory responsibility to assess children in need, and provide services to meet them. They do so under a continuing pressure to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve outcomes for their looked after children. To achieve good outcomes requires long-term positive investment at all levels of care provision, and this includes adoption services.

Local Authorities could outsource this need to the Voluntary Adoption Agencies which have specialist knowledge of, and significant experience in the assessment and support of adoptive families. These families are often accepting parental responsibility for children who have survived early life trauma and abuse. As such they need careful preparation for this life-long commitment, and they need to feel that they will be supported.

Placing a cost on providing an opportunity for children to benefit from family life, has been achieved through the recent DCSF figures. I think that had they shown that the Voluntary Agencies had been overcharging for adoption placements (which is a view many managers within Local Authorities, holding budgetary responsibilities appear to believe) the Voluntary Agencies would have been severely criticised. That they have shown that the service has been significantly undercharged, appears to have been ignored.

This is unsurprising given that they are being asked to cut spending. However, an appropriate investment in an adoption placement will very quickly save money, because the child leaves the care system. This saves money for the Local Authority, but achieves so much more for the child.

Funding, charging and commissioning processes are inevitably going to be carefully scrutinised as public services are squeezed ever more tightly. Understanding the true cost (and savings) of adoption must inform any decision regarding the allocation of funding linked to a particular child.

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