Social work and related services

Tender description

The Adoption Support Fund (ASF) was introduced in May 2015 to enable adoptive families to have access to specialist therapeutic support services when they need them so as to improve outcomes for young people and families. In April 2016, the scope of the Fund was extended to children who were previously in care immediately prior to being cared for under a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) and children living in England who were adopted from countries other than England. Adoption support services play a vital role in supporting families to meet the needs of their adoptive children. Over 70% of children adopted enter care due to abuse or neglect. Many adopted children have specific needs or disabilities, which require additional support. While recent research has shown that only around 3% of adoptions disrupt, a quarter of parents report major challenges, and a further third describe life as generally good with some challenge. The Adoption and Children Act (2002) places a duty on local authorities to maintain an appropriate service for adoption support. The Adoption Support Services Regulations (2005) require authorities to assess adoption support needs when requested by an adoptive child, their parents, natural parents and former guardians. The provision of support to meet these needs is at the discretion of the local authority, taking into account the individual case and local resources. Despite the increase in funding to local authorities through the ASF, we are aware that there still remain challenges around adoption support services e.g. parental awareness of entitlement to an assessment of their adoption support needs; the timeliness and quality of adoption support assessments; an underdeveloped evidence base on the effectiveness of specialist therapeutic interventions and availability and quality of services across the country. To access the ASF, the responsible local authority must have conducted an assessment of the adoptive/eligible special guardian family’s support needs. If the assessment identifies that therapeutic services would be beneficial to the family, the local Authority, in discussion with the family, can apply to the ASF on the family’s behalf. Following an open procurement process, Mott MacDonald were awarded the contract to manage and deliver the ASF service from 1.4.2018 — 31.3.2020. The delivery partner’s role will be to: — set up and manage a new digital platform to process up to 10 000 applications per year including a successful transition from the current platform, — provide ongoing helpline support and other relevant guidance on making applications to the Fund to local authorities / regional adoption agencies, — assess and approve up to 10 000 applications a year according to published scope and criteria, — refer applications above the fair access limits to the Department for approval, — manage payments to local authorities and funds returned by local authorities, — respond to complaints, — develop and implement ideas to make best use of the learning from the take up of ASF to date, — provide detailed management information to the Department on a weekly, monthly, annual and ad-hoc basis, — provide targeted support to local authorities and regional adoption agencies on a range of policy areas including developing the provider market and piloting the regionalisation of the ASF, — work effectively with any contractor appointed to carry out the evaluation of the implementation of the Fund, and — ensure there is a smooth transition or closure at the end of the contract.