Caritas Care and Adoption Matters successful partnership service Concurrent Planning has been awarded a 2 year contract to provide families for 86 babies across the region.

The partnership were invited to tender for the service by 4 North West Regional Adoption Agencies, Adoption NoW, Adoption Counts, Together for Adoption and Adoption in Merseyside (comprising of 20 Local Authorities) and Blackpool Council following the success of the service over their first 3 years where they have placed over 60 babies and young children.

Tracey Coffey, Chair of the North West Adoption Leadership board said:

“We are really pleased that Caritas Care and Adoption Matters have been recommissioned to provide concurrent adoption placements across the region. The new service will work with the four new Regional Adoption Agencies in the North West and Blackpool Council. The contract is for 86 placements to be provided over the next two years which is a significant increase on the previous commission. This is credit to the success of the programme in enabling many children to be placed with their adoptive families as early as possible over the last three years. We look forward to working closely with the concurrency team in achieving this new goal”.

Cathy Sowden, Concurrent Planning Service Manager said:

“We are thrilled to be working with more Local Authorities across the region and to have the opportunity to find more families and give more young children the best start in life. We look forward to working closely and building on our excellent working relationship with our existing local authorities and forging new ones”

Concurrent planning is a route to early permanence for babies and young children where rehabilitation to birth family is a possible outcome, but a more probable outcome is adoption. Approved as both foster carers and adopters, the child is placed under fostering arrangements until the decision regarding permanence is made and then adopted by the carers or returned to birth parents.

Carers are made aware of the risk and the need to manage uncertainty. They are fully supported and prepared through our intensive training and support programmes.

In addition to the successful tender, the service is also expanding their services into the Stoke/Staffordshire and Yorkshire regions.

To find out more about the Concurrent Planning Service, visit www.nwconcurrentplanning.org.uk