Herefordshire and Worcestershire adoption service praised in OFSTED report
Adoption Central England (ACE) is the regional agency for both counties
Last updated 15th Apr 2024
An OFSTED report has praised the work of an adoption service in both Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
Adoption Central England (ACE) is the regional agency for both counties, along with for Warwickshire, Coventry, and Solihull.
In the recent report, the group were recognised for their strong practices in recruiting adoptive families, and in securing permanent families for children.
Head of ACE Brenda Vincent has welcomed the findings, and says it's important work continues to find people a permanent home.
She said: "Adoption is a broad range of services, so there's many people affected by adoptions.
"The report reiterated that the recruitment of people to adopt was very strong, from the start of the process all the way to the end with who they're going to adopt.
"They did highlight one area for us to think about which was how we work more closely with adoptive families and adopted young people in terms of further developing our service, but I think our overall sense from the inspection was that the regionalisation is working in our area."
ACE was one of six regional adoption agencies inspected by OFSTED between October and December 2023.
The report also showed that there is still demand for more people to consider adoption.
"There's always a need for us to have more adoptive families coming forward," Brenda said.
"We're in a very fortunate position that during the last year the number of families who we've approved to adopt has gone back to our pre-COVID levels.
"We always need more families to come forward because there are always people waiting, so it's important to find the right family for the right person."