The aim was to investigate the PSS asset base and to assess how prepared social services departments were to contribute information about their capital needs to the wider corporate processes and to the council's policy priorities and objectives, as required under the auspices of the Single Pot. The results from the survey report are now available. Key messages need to be learned. Case studies of good practice are illustrated in the survey report which some councils will find helpful. Adoption Services Public, political, media and professional interest in adoption has never been higher.
Adoption is a highly emotive topic.
It is an area of experience which touches many of us personally. It concerns, at a most basic level, our views about the importance of stable, nurturing and loving family life for all children and especially for those children in the public care. Many of those children will not have experienced consistency and security and their birth families may be unable to provide this. It is important that decisions about how adoption services need to change are based on accurate information rather than anecdote or emotional responses to unrepresentative cases. This report describes the findings of a major project that the Social Services Inspectorate has undertaken over the last year to evaluate local councils' adoption services.