Thurrock Council and the City of London are joining Coram and its two long standing partners Harrow, and Redbridge to form Coram Capital Adoption. In this way expertise will be used and shared as efficiently as possible to help children in the most need.
The initiative builds on well evidenced successes whereby Harrow Council, for example, ensured the successful placement of every child needing adoption in the first year of analysis and saved the council £440,000* a year. The Department for Education’s most recent comparative of adoption performance amongst 153 LAs showed that Harrow was ranked fourth best for the timescale between a child entering care and moving in with their adopters (less than 18 months). Likewise Harrow was ranked seventh best for the timescale between receiving court authority to place a child for adoption and matching with adopters.
The Coram Capital Adoption model for working with London Local Authorities is supported by the Department for Education’s Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA) Voluntary Adoption Expansion Grant and anticipates the government’s recent proposals and legislation requiring LAs and voluntary adoption agencies to work together for the greater benefit of children who may be placed for adoption.
Coram Capital Adoption will incorporate Coram’s established adoption service which currently provides more than 10% of adoptions in London. The new Pears Pavilion opened in March provides a new resource for recruitment assessment and adoption support for adopters.
Families who are approved by Coram’s adoption panels enjoy access to Coram’s wide range of support services, including art and music therapy and a range of established parenting skills groups.
Dr Carol Homden CBE, Chief Executive of Coram said: “Each Local Authority comes with its own ambitions for children in their area. Coram’s expertise identifies the gaps and strengths of each service and helps each partner develop strategies to achieve their goals for children. Strategies include our successfully evidenced initiatives such as Concurrent Planning and Fostering to Adoption, which focus on stability of placement for babies and very young children.”
Coram welcomes enquiries from London Local Authorities that may be interested in joining Coram Capital. For further information please contact Cathrine Clarke, cathrinec@coram.org.uk