Adoption Support Services Assessment

[EHCPWarrior]

Dear All,

I have just come across the following it seems to be a Policy Unit who have looked into Adoption Support Services Assessments and have published a framework for LA. It's Brilliant!

logosbound.com/childrens-social-care-1

Thanks for posting. I have only skim read it, but it seems excellent.

For adopters, this is particularly important when
a) contributing to assessments and
b) giving feedback on anything social workers have written:

LANGUAGE THAT TRIGGERS PROTECTION
Use: necessary, required, essential, must have, without which [harm/impact]. Avoid: would be helpful, might benefit, could consider, desirable. The difference is not semantic - it determines which legal duties apply.

This is another very important aspect:

SIBLING SAFEGUARDING - CRITICAL PRINCIPLE
Where support for one sibling is essential to protect the welfare of another, this creates an enhanced duty to assess and provide services. Sibling-on-sibling harm must be treated with the same seriousness as any other safeguarding concern.

And I like this comment:
THE FAMILY'S ROLE
The family's role is to PARENT. They should not be left to case-manage multiple services. That is what the Reg 16(4) coordinator is for. Taking this burden off the family is central to helping adoptions succeed.

It is completely unclear who is supposed to do the coordinating if several services are involved. In our case, it is certainly me.

I would pass it on to your LA or RAA if I were you, but yes that's how I read it that for adopters in gives us a framework that LA's should be using. I fed it through Co-Pilot and Claude, it came out as outstanding.

I passed it on straight away :-).

I will continue to manage my children's different teams, because their needs are highly complex. No social worker will be as invested or as knowledgeable as I am. I can do this, but I feel for people who can't.

This is 70 pages of dynamite! Do you mind if I repost it on all the closed groups I’m part of?

not at all

It's on the web, it's so new I thought people should know about it. My assessment was it was dynamite as well.

Doing it now!

Our social worker just circulated it in her RAA, so it is worth passing it on.

Well my RAA has just told me in writing that Adoption Support Assessments are not Needs-Led........ In writing contradicting the House of Commons library and Adoption UK's website.

How far have we fallen. Circulate this everyone its only when we all demand the standard that things will change. It's time now for us to all be heard for our children and those who come after us.

I have posted this on a few adopter closed groups and I have forwarded it on to my PASW. I was one of the 50 families who worked with the BBC on the November coverage of the rifeness of parent-blaming and shaming in Adoption Land.

Well, if they’re not needs-based, then what are they? And what actually would be the point of NON-needs-based assessments?

Today the government announced a consultation on Adoption Support Assessments and asked for feedback on what parents think. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/adoption-support-that-works-for-all

Suggest people start to comment on it, otherwise it will be the LA's RAA's and the institutions that shape the future not us as adopters.

It would mean they don't have to pay for it, out of their budget and not just use the ASSGF.