Supporting adoption: vision and priorities - statement

7. Realising the Vision

We will realise our vision by:

• Recognising that adoption impacts on, and is impacted by, broader social, economic and policy factors, and ensuring that the right strategic connections and collaboration are fostered – both within the Scottish Government and across the sector.
• Playing a key role in ensuring that the good practice that is already happening in many parts of Scotland is embedded more widely across all of the country, and supporting new approaches where there is collective support, and they are affordable and deliverable.
• Continuing to prioritise and deliver the work already underway in the Scottish Government both at a micro level (directly focused on adoption and permanence) and at a macro level (focused on system change).
• Considering research, including CELCIS’s ‘Towards modernising adoption in Scotland: A focused mapping review’, to identify how we can develop adoption in Scotland and identify and promote good practice to better meet the needs of our adoption community.

The actions we are taking, or plan to take, across the five strategic priorities over the next 18 months are set out below.

Recognising adoption as the best permanence option for some children. We will:

• Ensure that Scottish Government publications and communications set out clearly and consistently our strong support for the continued value of adoption and frame all messaging positively in line with Each and Every Child.
• Continue to participate as a member of the Adoption Taskforce, a national forum to champion adoption as a positive permanence option for children in Scotland. As part of this, we will identify opportunities for the promotion of key messages at both a national and local level, to support a coherent narrative around adoption.
• Continue to financially support the annual national Adoption Week, which celebrates adoption and helps our adoption community access information and support.

Best practice to support timely adoption and good transitions. We will:

• Re-tender and fund the contract for Scotland’s Adoption Register, to support family finding.
• Provide funding to the Association of Fostering, Kinship and Adoption to develop National Good Practice in Permanence Guides on families in permanence, and birth families in permanence. These guides will inform and support practitioners in what needs to happen at each stage of a child’s journey to permanence.
• Take forward recommendations from the Children’s Hearings System Working Group Redesign Report around a national review of child protection, care and support processes. The findings from that review or mapping exercise will also help to inform wider work on permanence, including in relation to adoption.

Best practice to support family time and life journey work. We will:

• Provide funding to the Association of Fostering, Kinship and Adoption to develop a National Good Practice in Permanence Guide on family time. This guide will promote good practice around supporting a child’s important relationships, both now and in the future.
• Convene discussions with our adoption community on life journey work and explore the potential for the development and delivery of life journey materials for children to improve practice and consistency across Scotland.

Consistent and comprehensive post-adoption support. We will:

• Undertake a series of conversations with our adoption community on post-adoption support, including how we can better share and promote good practice across Scotland, and identify what more is needed and is affordable and deliverable.
• Fund the FASD Hub Scotland run by Adoption UK (Scotland) to provide support, training and advice to families, carers and professionals supporting children affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
• Fund the Pathways Programme run by Adoption UK (Scotland) for adoptive families, which provides therapeutic parenting support.
• Work towards the development of trauma training and resources alongside NHS Education to support caregivers, including adoptive parents to provide trauma-informed care for the children and young people in their care.
• Continue to develop and share key messages for local areas, including through learning the lessons on the impact of the ‘Supporting birth parents whose child(ren) have been permanently removed from their care’ Fund, which recently included a third year of funding of £900,000 taking the total funding to date at over £2.1m.
• Provide funding through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund to key organisations in our adoption community who provide support to families and practitioners.

Lifelong support. We will:

• Continue to engage with all voices in our adoption community to ensure that policies around lifelong support are informed by lived experience.
• Seek views on the need for a universal definition of ‘care experience’ and what the potential impacts of this could be through a public consultation.
• Update content on mygov.scot so that it is up to date, clear and easy to navigate, ensuring that our adoption community can find the information they need simply and quickly. This will highlight support services available for post-adoption support and guidance available, such as access to records.