Sandwell adoption services finally rated 'good' by Ofsted
Adoption services at Sandwell Children’s Trust have been rated as Good following a recent Ofsted inspection after years of needing to improve.
Inspectors visited the organisation in December 2022 where they concluded improvements made had boosted its rating to ‘Good’. The service was previously rated ‘Requires improvement to be good’ in January 2019.
In the four years between these inspections, a total of 123 Sandwell children have been placed with adoptive families.
Sandwell is part of Adoption@Heart, a regional adoption agency for the Black Country that partners with City of Wolverhampton Council, Dudley Council, and Walsall Council.
Many adoption functions are carried out by Adoption@Heart. However Sandwell Children’s Trust works closely with Adoption@Heart, focusing on identifying which children require adoption and working with those children to place them with adopters.
Jacqui Smith, chair of Sandwell Children’s Trust said: “This is a huge milestone in our improvement journey with both our fostering service and adoption service now rated as ‘Good’ by Ofsted. This demonstrates how far we have come since becoming a trust in 2018.
“The report details real tangible strengths within the adoption service, alongside a few areas we know we need to work on, to improve even further.
“The rating also demonstrates how our strong partnership and close working relationship with the regional Adoption@Heart, is making a difference to children in Sandwell.”
Councillor Simon Hackett, Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for children and education, said: “This is such an important part of the work Sandwell Children’s Trust does to support children into being part of a permanent family and helping those prospective adopters who dedicate their lives to children in need of adoption.”
“Getting a ‘Good’ rating from Ofsted evidences that we are on the right track to making sure children in Sandwell get the best start in life with a permanent family.”
