Following the launch of the Early Permanence National Practice Standards in Spring 2023, Adoption England has now launched a self-assessment toolkit to help agencies identify areas of strong and effective practice and establish any areas that need more development. 

The key purpose of the standards was to help promote and shape effective and consistent early permanence practice systems across Regional Adoption Agencies, Voluntary Adoption Agencies and Local Authorities to:

• Achieve child-centred practice
• Standardise practice and outcomes across all agencies
• Strengthen local arrangements
• Promote confident and informed delivery of early permanence
• Promote effective working partnerships across agencies
• Enable more children to benefit from early permanence

Since the launch, agencies have been using the standards to improve early permanence work to ensure more children are able to find a safe, stable and permanent home as quickly as possible. 

The self-assessment toolkit has been designed to help agencies identify how well the standards have been imbedded within their agency. The toolkit will allow agencies to understand areas of best practice, as well as helping them to understand any areas that can be improved on.

The toolkit is simple to use, and provides links to helpful resources and supporting information for each area of work.