Referring Children and Adopters to Adoption 22 and the National Adoption Register

Manchester Children’s Services refer to Adoption 22 (local consortium) and the National Adoption Register those children who have a SHOPBA (should be placed for adoption) decision but where there is not already a link identified which is being actively pursued.

Children will be referred to Adoption 22 when the Agency has formally decided that adoption is in the child’s best interest and either:

• A full Care Order with a plan for adoption has been made; or
• The child is subject to an Interim Care Order and all required consents, including that of the Court, have been obtained;
• The child is Accommodated and the consent of those with Parental Responsibility has been obtained.

Discussions will take place at the Family Finding Planning Meeting as to whether an immediate referral to Adoption 22 or NAR is needed.

The Children may be put on to Adoption 22 and then put on hold if a link is being actively pursued.

Children will be referred to the Register at the latest by three months after the Agency has formally decided that adoption is in the child’s best interest and either:

• A full Care Order with a plan for adoption has been made; or
• The child is subject to an Interim Care Order and all required consents, including that of the Court, have been obtained; or
• The child is Accommodated and the consent of those with Parental Responsibility has been obtained.

• Children who have the capacity to understand the purpose and functioning of the Adoption Register must give their consent to being referred to the Register;
• Where a child is the subject of a Care Order or Interim Care Order and the Local Authority has Parental Responsibility, the social worker entitled to exercise that Parental Responsibility must after consultation with all others with Parental Responsibility, give consent to the child being referred to the Adoption Register. Where there is an Interim Care Order only, the social worker should also obtain the agreement of the Court;
• Where the child is Accommodated, the birth parent who holds Parental Responsibility must consent to the child being referred to the Adoption Register.

Once a child has been made subject to a SHOPBA decision, Business Support will put the basic details about the child to the Adoption 22 and NAR systems.

The Family Finder will complete the referral once they have details of a child’s specific needs (usually after the Family Finding Planning Meeting).

Prior to the SHOBPA decision being made and/or for Court reports, general information about the numbers of potential placements may be requested.

• Adoption 22 - the family finder will do a search with the information available;
• NAR – the family finder will contact the NAR and request a Court Search which is usually available in 5 days. (This will only give general information i.e. numbers of families. A referral needs to be made for potential links to be identified).

Once a child ‘s referral has been activated on the Adoption 22 database – their information becomes available to any worker in Adoption 22 who is searching for a child.  Searches for families can be made at any time by the family finder using the search facility and should be done at regular intervals in an ongoing search for a family.

Once a child’s details have been recorded on the NAR’s database, a computer search will be undertaken to identify potential adopters for him/her.

The family finder will be informed of these by e-mail.

Repeated searches will be carried out at regular intervals for children where it is not possible to identify appropriate families at the time of the first search. Additionally, a computer search will be instigated with every new family referral received. This will ensure that any child already on the Register, whose details match the new family’s details, will be identified and considered as a possible match

The family finder should keep the information about the child’s needs up to date on both Adoption 22 and the NAR.

The Family finder will record this on Adoption 22 (irrespective of what type of placement in house/interagency and how link found) and inform the NAR.

IMPORTANT: Any proposed change of Permanence Plan for the child (outside of the Panel’s original recommendation) should first be agreed at the Statutory Review, then presented to the Adoption Panel and agreed by the Agency Decision Maker before Adoption 22 or the NAR can be notified of any changes.

Adopters

A similar system applies to adopters referrals to Adoption 22 and the NAR. It is the responsibility of the family’s Supervising Social Worker to keep the family’s details up to date and pursue any links identified through the 2 systems.