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Our local authority partnerships

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Coram-i has had successful partnerships with over 20 local authorites, offering varying degrees of support. Below are case studies, which detail the work done by Coram-i, in collaboration with local authorities, to achieve better outcomes for children in care.

Coram-i managed service: Kent County Council case studyKent County Council logo

In February 2012, Coram-i partnered with Kent County Council to improve the LA’s Adoption Service. In first three years the partnership delivered an increase of 138% in the number of children placed for adoption over the course of three year and resulted in 182 children being adopted in 2014/15, the highest number of children adopted in a year in any one local authority.

Key achievements

Timescales:

The average time an adopted child had spent in care fell by nearly 250 days, meaning they have improved chances of having better outcomes in their life as adopted children.

Adopter satisfaction:

  • 99% of enquirers felt the information events met or exceeded their expectations
  • 99% of applicants from preparation groups (stage 1) and 98% from from preparation groups (stage 2) felt the  preparation groups met their needs and the course’s aims ‘extremely’ or ‘mostly’
  • 98% of applicants reported that their overall experience at adoption panel was good or excellent

Cost avoided expenditure:

Our partnership with Kent resulted in the local authority avoiding at least £2.5m in expenditure over four years, after counting the cost of Coram-i’s support, as a result of adopted children spending less time in care.

Staff satisfaction: 

Staff commented at the last Ofsted inspection in March 2013 that “management systems are massively different now. Poor decisions were made in the past; that’s why we were failing; we feel things are far better now. The partnership with Coram has been extremely positive.”

Read our full case study here