From 18th to 24th October 2021, National Adoption Week is dedicated to all those impacted by adoption. Jeff and Suzanne, Directors of SS Educational Services, adopted their youngest child and so this week has a special importance to our organisation. Their daughter has complex special needs, so not in the ‘easy to adopt’ group but she has brought so much joy, laughter and frustration to her family and extended circle. Sadly, she is in a minority, the numbers of adopted children never exceed the number needing adoption.
There are many children waiting to be adopted, statistics can be found here but below is a glimpse, all data is for Year Ending 31.03.21:
Adoption from Care – 3,440 children looked after were adopted;
Awaiting Adoption – 5,880 were not yet placed;
The average waiting time between a child entering care and moving in with its adoptive family is 459 days.
Whilst in care children can be placed with Foster Carers, or sometimes they may need the more specialist support of a Residential Unit. There are 2 apprenticeship standards directly attached to the latter – the Level 4 Children, Young People and Families Practitioner and the Level 5 Children, Young People and Families Manager. Our mini-series on the standards SSES are/will be End Point Assessing continue next month covering these 2 standards. As foster carers Jeff and Suzanne have a unique insight into the needs of the children, and the employers, and Suzanne has herself completed the Level 5 qualification. They are therefore sensitive to the needs of building an End Point Assessment that showcases the Apprentices work, whilst maintaining the necessary confidentiality of the Residential Unit and the children.
As with all the EPAs SS Educational Services carry out, their sector knowledge allows for an EPA that is individual to the sector. With the Level 4 and Level 5 Children, Young People and Families standards, as an extra measure, to ensure confidentiality in case of a data protection breach, SSES will use the Ofsted URN when completing any paperwork to avoid a unit’s name being readily available.
If you would like any further information please use the chat box, or email SSES on contact@sseducationalservices.co.uk
