A new, more efficient method of assessing prospective adopters designed to strengthen adoption assessment and matching, leading to better outcomes for children with complex needs and those children waiting the longest.
What is the Adoption Assessment Report (AAR)?
The AAR is an assessment format with a range of associated assessment tools and templates that has been designed and tested since 2018, for the purposes of Adopter assessments. It places the child at the heart of the assessment, supporting prospective adopters to assess their strengths and vulnerabilities. This will enable appropriate targeted, timely and robust interventions to be provided throughout their adoption journey.
..the AAR puts the adopted child at the heart of the assessment. Gives the opportunity for adopters to reflect on their own development throughout the process and ensures that any conclusions about prospective adopters suitability is driven by robust analysis.
Social Worker
The AAR
- Creates holistic, multi-dimensional assessments to be able to match children with complex needs with resilient, well-prepared, and supported adoptive families.
- Is underpinned and informed by Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and secure base theory and practice.
- Reflects what we know about neuroscience and the impact of trauma and what this tells us about how adopters need to parent – tools are provided to assess their capacity to do so.
- Is designed to reach a greater diversity of adopter.
- Is a collaborative format promoting co-production with prospective adopters, engaging with them to complete information and online assessments.
- Supports the social worker’s information and evidence gathering to enable an analytical evaluation of potential therapeutic parenting.
- Starts in the present day and creates an end narrative that is easy to read.
- Has been colour coded to highlight the different sections and to support the reader and panel in discussion.
- Includes guidance, assessment tools and word counts.
- Can also be utilised in Foster to Adopt requirements.
Development of the AAR
The AAR has been developed following the DfE awarding a practice improvement grant in 2018 to explore and develop improvements in assessment and matching to meet the needs of children with complex needs so that interventions and support could be more tailored.
The AAR has been operational within ACE Regional Adoption Agency and Adoption Focus since May 2020 and within Barnardos since October 2021.
The AAR package provides Assessing Social Workers in Adoption with training, assessment tools and guidance. These are informed by DDP and secure base principles to consider the adopter’s understanding of the impact of trauma, therapeutic parenting, and PACE.
All of the above results in clarity of evidence which underpins the Social Worker’s analysis of the applicant’s capacity to parent through adoption.
Feedback
Feedback from adopters, SW’s, panel members and Ofsted is so far very positive.
“The adopters were able to demonstrate in their section how they fully understood the neuroscience and therapeutic parenting session. Previously this would have been reported by me.” - Social Worker
“At the outset of the process we believed we had a good understanding of each others’ strengths and weaknesses from already having raised two children together. However, we have both been forced to challenge ourselves and each other, in terms of ensuring we are both open to the new techniques and specific methods that are most suitable to raising adopted children.” - Adopters