A joint project to strengthen adoption services has won a prestigious national award.

Adopting Together – a collaboration between St David’s Children’s Society, Cardiff University School of Psychology and Cardiff Business School – clinched the innovation honour at the Institute for Collaborative Working Awards in London.

Led by St. David’s Children Society, Adopting Together aims to meet a distinct need identified by the National Adoption Service in finding and therapeutically supporting permanent homes for children who wait the longest for a family.

This includes children over four years old, brothers and sisters, and those with complex needs or developmental uncertainty.

The collaboration is developing highly innovative and sector-leading adoption services, grounded in nationally identified needs.

The combined team – including therapeutic partners and colleagues from Barnardo’s and Adoption UK – offers a specialist programme of psychologist-led adoption support, pre- and post- adoption placement.

The project began as a Welsh Government funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership in September 2017. Through direct guidance from Dr Jane Lynch at Cardiff Business School, and with support from Coralie Merchant, KTP Associate, Adopting Together has created a structure behind its delivery that represents transformational change in the procurement of social care and aligns with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

Receiving the national award at a ceremony at the House of Lords, Dr. Katherine Shelton, School of Psychology said: “Dr Jane Lynch and I are absolutely delighted to see ‘Adopting Together’ receive the Innovation Award from the Institute for Collaborative Working.