Case Study: Exploring National and Pan-regional Commissioning Arrangements for Adoption Support

Client: Adoption England, Leeds City Council

Dates: January 2023 – December 2023

Challenges faced by the client:

The Department for Education's (DfE) Adoption Strategy: Achieving Excellence Everywhere (July 2021) proposed investigating whether national or pan-regional commissioning could provide better value for money in adoption support. This proposal aimed to address multiple challenges in the adoption support commissioning landscape, including:

• Increased demand and spending

• Varied processes

• Gaps in provision

• Families experiencing delays

To support the National Adoption Strategy, the DfE allocated grant funding of £1.5 million for 2023/24 and £2 million for 2024/25 to explore national or pan-regional commissioning arrangements for adoption support.

Our Support:

Our involvement began with a focused analysis of the options for national commissioning of adoption support. This led to a recommendation to explore both national and pan-Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) commissioning.

Following this, we provided pre-mobilisation support to the National Adoption Team to establish the foundations for Adoption England's Commissioning Programme at both national and regional levels. A significant part of this phase involved engaging with all RAAs across the country to understand the different commissioning landscapes, identify opportunities for collaborative commissioning, and determine practical implementation strategies.

As a result of these activities, we collaborated with the National Adoption Team and RAA leaders to develop an implementation strategy and plan for the funding programme. This plan outlined the overall approach required to achieve the expected goals and outcomes, defined roles and responsibilities, provided a statement of purpose for regions to sign up to, and included an implementation plan with four key work packages:

1. National Adoption Commissioning Team

2. National and regional needs assessment

3. Innovation Fund

4. National commissioning support offer

The National Team completed and signed off on this plan in July 2023.

Mutual Ventures also supported the mobilisation of this strategy, which included:

• Managing key actions to establish the National Adoption Commissioning Team and supporting their induction through coaching and flexible support

• Setting up and supporting monthly meetings with representatives from all regions

• Overseeing the allocation of funding for specific regional roles

• Supporting the needs assessment process, including working with stakeholders to identify national data to be shared regionally

• Developing the Innovation Fund application and process

• Co-designing a commissioning support offer for regions

  
  

Outcome:

Mutual Ventures support to Adoption England and Leeds Council ensured that Adoption England’s Commissioning Programme was well-positioned to achieve its goals and deliver improved adoption support across the country. The programme was mobilised effectively with a clear implementation strategy to support its success.