We’ve published our Annual Report (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024)

Here’s a summary of our Annual Report:

Adopt South West is an agency that helps children find adoptive families in the areas of Devon, Plymouth, Somerset, Torbay, and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

• We work with local authorities and other partners to improve adoption services: Adopt South West has an agreement with the local councils to provide adoption functions, such as recruiting, assessing, and supporting adopters, family finding, and adoption support. The agency also collaborates with other regional adoption agencies and national groups to share best practices and learn from each other.

• Adopt South West faced challenges in recruiting enough adopters and reducing adoption order delays: It also aimed to provide consistent support across the region and to embed its cultural identity as a regional adoption agency.

• We’ve seen an increase in the number of children with adoption plans and placements: In 2023 to 2024, there were 196 children with a plan for adoption and 108 children with a placement order in the region, which is higher than the previous year. Most of the children were placed with our own adopters (approved by Adopt South West), and many of them were placed through early permanence arrangements. We received national recognition for its work on early permanence and children with disabilities.
• We offer a range of activities and events to support adopters and children: Adopt South West offers training, workshops, groups, newsletter, and social events for adoptive families and children. We run an annual conference, a peer mentoring scheme, and various training courses for adopters. We help adopters and children to maintain contact with birth relatives through letterbox and direct contact services, and also supports birth parents through groups and involvement in adopter preparation.

• We have a flexible purchasing system for adoption support services: Adopt South West helps adopters to access therapeutic services for their children and families through the Adoption Support Fund. Our purchasing system allows us to commission services from a variety of providers across the region. We also work with other regional adoption agencies to explore the potential of pan-regional commissioning arrangements.

• Our focus for the next year: Adopt South West plans to work on embedding its cultural identity as a regional adoption agency for five local councils, improving ways to get feedback from different stakeholders, promoting direct contact between adopted children and their birth families, and reducing the waiting time for adoption support assessments.

Find our Annual Report for 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 on our website.