Independent Counselling Service (For the birth parents and other relatives of children with an adopt

Descriptions

The Council is seeking to procure a service provider to offer Independent Counselling Service for the birth parents and other relatives of children with an adoption plan.National Minimum Standards for Adoption requires that ‘birth parents will have access to a support worker independent of the child's social worker from the time adoption is identified as the plan for the child’.In most cases this will be once the Agency Decision that the child should be placed for adoption has been made. However, birth parents who are considering relinquishing a baby may be offered independent counselling as soon as they request adoption.The council has to date offered this service via an independent organisation and this this tender is a re-commissioning of that service.