The Corporate Parent Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet to discuss the Adopt North East annual report, readiness for education, and other matters. Some of the items, including a YOS ¹ music therapy evaluation, feedback from a participation group, and reports on a children's home and staying close case studies, will be discussed in private due to the confidential nature of the information.

Adopt North East Annual Report

The committee is scheduled to discuss the annual report from Adopt North East, a regional adoption agency (RAA) serving five local authorities in the north-east of England. The agency is a partnership between Newcastle City Council, Gateshead Council, Northumberland County Council, North Tyneside Council and South Tyneside Council.

The report pack includes an overview of the agency's performance and activity between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. According to the overview, during this period Adopt North East:

• Matched 79 children
• Placed 76 children, 13 in early permanence placements
• Supported 114 children to be adopted
• Received 156 contacts about becoming an adopter
• Commenced 71 prospective adoptive families at Stage 1 of the process
• Held 44 adoption panels
• Approved 59 adopters
• Matched 69 adoptive families with children
• Received 1,218 contacts for adoption support
• Completed 429 assessments of adoption support need
• Made 858 claims to the Adoption Support Fund with a value of over £2.47m
• Supported 21 non-agency adoption orders to be granted

The report notes that the agency's performance was impacted by a national reduction in the number of people coming forward to adopt. It also notes that three of the five local authority partners were subject to Ofsted inspection, with all three inspections concluding that adoption services provided by Adopt North East are effectively meeting the needs of children. According to the overview of performance and activity, the sufficiency gap – the number of placements with non-Adopt North East adopters – increased to 36%, its highest yet . A review of the Agency Sufficiency Strategy is scheduled to be undertaken to ensure recruitment is effective and delivers for children.

The overview also notes a number of service improvements, including:

• Being awarded the nationally prestigious Quality Mark for Early Permanence in December 2024
• Redesigning preparatory training for adopters
• Commencing workforce development towards becoming a Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) certified organisation²
• Extending a pilot with North Tyneside Council to support earlier involvement in permanency planning for children

The overview states that in March 2025, the Executive Board of Adopt North East refreshed its priorities for the Agency for 2025/26 and established six new priorities:

1. More Families for Children
2. More Digital Solutions
3. More Adoption Support
4. More Maintained Relationships
5. More Collaboration
6. More Voice and Influence.

Readiness for Education

The committee is scheduled to discuss a report describing efforts to understand the issue of non-school attendance among children and young people in care. The report also covers the development and testing of a model aimed at greater co-ordination of services.

According to the report, a task and finish group was established with representatives from the Virtual School, Educational Psychology, Children in Care Services, Residential Home Managers and Future Focus. The group is working in three phases:

1. A discovery phase involving scoping the problem and a small-scale pilot of a model
2. A development phase to refine the model and test 'buy in' from key stakeholders
3. A large-scale pilot

The report states that 'Emotionally based school non-attendance' (EBSNA) is a term preferred to 'Not in Education, Employment or Training' (NEET). It notes that EBSNA disproportionally affects children and young people placed in local authority residential care. The report also notes that chronic non-attendance at school is a symptom of developmental trauma, and not a lifestyle choice.

The report pack includes a draft Newcastle EBSNA Support and Intervention plan, which sets out a developmental model for supporting young people in residential care who have emotionally based school non-attendance.

Challenge Log

The committee is scheduled to review the challenge log. According to the challenge log included in the Public Minutes 31072025 Corporate Parent Advisory Committee, at the last meeting it was confirmed that a final report on the introduction of council apprenticeships for care leavers was scheduled for September 2025. The committee also heard that an individual interested in being the substitute for the co-opted young person was there to observe the ongoing meeting.