A pioneering regional initiative, the South West Permanence Project (SWPP), is transforming how children with disabilities are supported into permanent, loving adoptive families across the South West of England. Funded by Adoption England and delivered collaboratively by Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) Adoption West, Adopt South West and Aspire Adoption, the project spans 13 local authorities, making it the first of its kind nationally to focus exclusively on permanence for children with disabilities.  

Children with disabilities and complex health needs continue to be among the least likely to be matched promptly with adoptive families, often waiting significantly longer than their peers due to uncertainty, systemic inconsistency, and misunderstanding of the needs of the children among prospective adopters.

Launched in response to these longstanding challenges around delays and inequality in adoption pathways, the SWPP is grounded in research by Professor Julie Selwyn and Dr. Andrew Brown that highlighted the urgent need for tailored support for children with disabilities and complex needs. 

The newly published Interim Report, led by Dr. Brown at the University of Oxford’s Rees Centre, said: “The SWPP has raised the profile of children with disabilities within Children’s Social Care and the broader field of adoption services. The interim evaluation has revealed a complex landscape of structural, procedural, and cultural factors that have influenced the early implementation of the SWPP. While the programme has made commendable advances in refining practice and shaping strategic dialogue, its progress has been affected by both facilitating conditions and ongoing barriers.’ 

Claire Downes, Project Lead and Social Worker, South West Permanence Project said: “Initially we wanted to trial Enhanced Family Finding, a method of family finding working used in America, to improve the chances of finding permanent, loving homes for children with disabilities and complex needs in a more timely manner. What we found from our initial research, however, was that the adoption system just wasn’t set up for it and so we needed to do a lot of work to reshape our processes. 

She continued: “In the initial phases we’ve focused on improving adoption support, telling the child’s story, improving early assessments and developing training for staff and prospective adopters to help improve people’s understanding of children’s specific needs. Only once we had started to implement all of that have we been able to start trialling Enhanced Family Finding, and we’re already seeing some successes.”

The initial focus for the SWPP Team was to improve adoption support for prospective adopters of children with disabilities and complex needs. On speaking to adoptive families about their experiences, the team found that parents often felt forced into choosing a care pathway for their child between the disability pathway and the adoption pathway. Most parents were choosing to follow the disability team as the priority focus, but this meant the child and family then had little or no access to therapeutic support for any historical trauma.

Claire explained, “because of some disconnect between adoption teams and disability teams, families felt they should follow one route of care for their adopted child, and often their disability or neurodivergence would be seen as the priority focus due to their immediate needs. What this meant is that those families were then not given support to deal with a child’s potential trauma experienced, which in turn could lead to crisis or family breakdown.”

Claire and the project team set to work improving adoption support for prospective parents as well as improving assessments for adoptive children so that the support could be put in place for children as soon as possible in that child’s adoptive journey. As part of this, they provided an information session for professionals, working with a therapeutic life story worker who was able to improve their understanding of adapting current therapeutic practice to meet the needs of children with disabilities or complex needs. They have worked to develop early assessments to help parents to better understand how to approach parenting and therapeutic support to meet children’s individual needs.  These new early assessments have recently launched and are available across the three RAAs involved in the project, and will be available to others commissioned to work alongside the Child Wellbeing Clinic.

In addition, the team have worked to improve children’s Link Maker profiles, to better portray each child’s diagnosis and how this affects their day to day lives. Link Maker profiles have been restructured to present information about the child first, their personality, likes and dislikes and what their typical day looks like, told through the voice of the child. This helps professionals and prospective families understand the child better and includes information about additional support they may need but told in a more human and accessible way, avoiding complex medical terms and helping families to understand that a diagnosis does not always mean a child requires complex care that is beyond the capabilities of most families. Guidance has been rolled out nationally to help staff complete Link Maker profiles in this way to tell children’s stories in a more positive and realistic way.

Once these elements were being developed the team started to trial an Enhanced Family Finding method to improve the chances of finding a permanent home for children more efficiently. This process involves compiling a list of all contacts from the child’s past and present from their Local Authority records, including health and social care workers, foster carers and family members to create an ecomap. Each of these people are then contacted, where relevant, to find out more information about the child to enhance their life story, and to look for any opportunities for ongoing care including short breaks, or permanent homes. 

Claire explains: “I’ve been in touch with American colleagues who are using this method with some success, and so we adapted their model to better fit the UK context and started trialling it here. We can gather anything from around 80 – 200 contacts for any one child, and then we methodically go through and analyse the list to see where there may be any opportunities. We then make contact with the people to start conversations about the child, to see if we can gather any more useful information about their lives and whether there is any scope for care opportunities. We often speak to birth parents, who are able to provide a really useful insight into family connections, and can play an important role in gathering more information about extended networks and relationships. 

She continued: “We’ve had some success with these methods so far, identifying some long-term adoptive placements for children, assessed some long-term placements and foster carers, working on identifying short break carers and helping to build consistent relationships for children. For some children, this process helps us to understand their position better, and it results in a change of plan where it is decided that the child is better to remain in long-term foster care or return to traditional family finding methods. It’s taken us a while to get our heads around the process, as it’s a new way of doing things, but it’s been a positive experience on the whole, and although time consuming, any child we’ve found a permanence option for makes the time very well spent.”

The Interim report highlights strong progress so far, having carried out interviews with the SWPP management group. It found that the project has helped RAAs to apply shared approaches to assessments, family finding and practice standards, aiming to reduce variations across the region and improve fairness for all cases. Those interviewed reported improved communication, clearer roles, and greater shared purpose amongst professionals, strengthening the quality of decision making. In addition, training and enhanced planning have helped adopters feel more equipped and confident to provide long-term‑ care for children with complex needs. 

While the report celebrates successes, it also highlights systemic ongoing challenges, inconsistent processes, delays, and workforce pressures, that continue to hinder outcomes. Local boards across the South West are now reviewing these findings to support improvements and embed learning regionally. The project will continue until the end of September 2026 when the final evaluation report will be published. 

A National First with National Potential

Sarah Johal, Strategic Lead for Adoption England said: “The South West Permanence Project is really unique, there’s nothing else like this happening across the rest of the country as far as we’re aware. With children with disabilities historically waiting significantly longer for adoption, the SWPP offers the potential for a timely and much needed model for change where we could see these children flourishing within permanent loving homes, with families who truly understand their unique needs.  

She continued: “The interim findings suggest that with sustained support, the SWPP could reshape how adoption services understand, support, and secure permanence for disabled children, ensuring they are seen not only for their needs, but for their individuality, strengths, and potential. We’re looking forward to seeing the outcome of the project later in the year and developing a deeper understanding of how this model could be applied in other areas of the country.”