St David’s Children Society partners with Cardiff University’s School for Psychology and Business School in a KTP to offer effective early intervention and prevention support.
In this KTP St David’s Children Society* has worked with Cardiff University’s School of Psychology and Business School to implement closer cross sector collaborative working and develop new methodologies in delivering an individualised recruitment and support service for priority children waiting 12 months or more for a family. It utilises clinical psychologist and therapeutic social worker input to offer effective early intervention and prevention support.
In 2016 the National Adoption Service (NAS) Cymru identified an unmet need for children waiting 12 months or more to find a family. The adoption sector in Wales recognised the necessity to develop a service that could meet the individual complex needs of these children, and the voluntary adoption agencies (St David’s Children Society, Barnardo’s Cymru and Adoption UK) were identified as uniquely positioned to establish a specialised service. With its 75-year history St David’s was acknowledged as having strength in experience, knowledge and expertise to lead on the development of the service.
The development of the service was broken down in to two components. The first was to develop the delivery of highly effective adoption support to minimise the risk of family breakdown and children returning to the care system. Developing and embedding effective interventions has resulted in increased knowledge and capability within the organisation. This has further enabled St David’s to deliver innovative responses to the children referred, ensuring early intervention and prevention is at the heart of the service.
The second component was the engagement of the statutory sector with the voluntary sector through innovative collaborative practices. This was to safeguard the proactive use of voluntary sector services as a critical component in the statutory sector’s duty of care. The Welsh Government’s implementation of the Well-being and Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 provided a platform to establish collaborative working across the statutory sector, third sector and multi-agency partners.
*About St David’s Children Society
St David’s Children Society is approved by the Care Inspectorate Wales to work as an Adoption Agency. Established in 1942, it is the longest serving adoption agency in Wales and to date has placed over 2,000 children. It provides locally based adoption services and its primary function is to recruit, approve and support adoptive families who provide permanent homes for children who require adoption.
“We are optimistic that a collaborative approach to service delivery, with the step change in procurement, will result in life long benefits for the most vulnerable children in Wales and their families” Wendy Keidan, CEO, St David’s Children Society
“Our aim is for this project to have lasting impact on the capacity of the adoption sector” Dr Katherine Shelton, Reader, School of Psychology, Cardiff University
“I sincerely hope that in taking a refreshed look at the public procurement process we will help improve lives of children who, through no fault of their own, are placed for adoption in Wales.” Dr Jane Lynch, Cardiff Business School
“Being a KTP Associate is a unique opportunity. I have worked across disciplines and gained skills and understanding in a variety of areas”Coralie Merchant, KTP Associate
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