Adopting

Why are children adopted?

Many children are not able to live with their birth families, for a variety of reasons. There are estimated to be around 5,000 children waiting for new families at any one time.   

We need adopters, such as yourselves, couples or single people who can meet the needs of the many children waiting for their new "Forever Family".

You could make a difference and give one or more of these children the love and attention they need to give them a better start in life.

In Hillingdon we are committed to ensuring that no one enquiring about adoption is discriminated against because of their race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, martial status, religion or disability. Our concern is to consider the ability of all applicants to care for children through to adulthood and identify whether the offerings of your family could be matched to the needs of a child.

Which children need adoption?

Children needing adoption are being looked after by Social Services and they may mostly be placed in foster homes. Occasionally, the birth parent(s) may have asked for their child to be placed for adoption. More often, social workers and a court will have made this decision in the child's best interests, with or without parental consent.

All children needing adoption will have experienced loss of and separation from their birth family. In addition, many will have a history of:

• Neglect and /or emotional or physical abuse.
• Birth parents who have mental ill health or who have abused drugs/alcohol.
• Birth parents who are unable to recognise their child's developmental and/or learning needs.
• Several changes in carer.

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Our children needing families include...

• Babies and pre-school children.
• School aged children through to their early teens.
• Brothers and sisters, who need to be placed together or helped to keep in contact with each other.
• Children from various racial and cultural backgrounds.
• Children with specific physical or learning disabilities.
• Children with developmental delay, the cause of which may be unclear.
• Children with particular medical needs or genetic uncertainties.
• Children who need ongoing therapeutic help to help them come to terms with their past.

What do you need to know about adoption?

Legally:

• You must be over 21 to adopt a child unrelated to you. Otherwise there are no specific restrictions on age, although we would expect that applicants have the potential to bring children up throughout their childhood and into adult life. Each case is dealt with on its merit as children's needs are highly varied.
• Currently if couples wish to adopt jointly, they must be married to each other. However this will change with the implementation of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.The full implementation is expected to be around the end of 2005.
• One applicant must be a United Kingdom resident. You do not have to live in the London Borough of Hillingdon, but we usually work with people living within a reasonable travelling distance, so that we can continue to support you once a child is placed.
• Certain criminal convictions such as offences of violence and those against children will preclude your application.
• In certain circumstances an Adoption Allowance may be paid to enable children to be adopted where a child has a specific need.

Health:

• If you are aware of any health problems you should discuss these early on with the social worker. Your health is important, as is a healthy lifestyle. We try to ensure that a child will not experience further losses.
• We follow advice from BAAF (British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering) and the Department of Health regarding smoking, and passive smoking. We would not normally place a baby or a very young child, or a child with a medical condition such as asthma, in a household where applicants smoke.
• Any health issues, including weight and use of alcohol, will be discussed with your GP by our Agency Medical Adviser to clarify any implications for adoption.

Other Issues:

• Single people can be a positive choice for some children. However it is particularly important for single parents to make sure that there are people available to offer them both practical and emotional support.
• Couples need to demonstrate a strong and stable relationship to ensure security for the children we place.
• We consider applicants with or without children. Research and experience indicate that there usually needs to be a two year age gap between the child placed and any other children in the family, although for some children, a wider age gap would be needed.
• For applicants who have had infertility investigations or treatment, we would expect these to have been concluded and at least six months to have elapsed before we proceed with your enquiry.
• We consider that consistent parenting is very important for children we place. Adopters do not necessarily have to give up work but if you are working you will need to explore what adoption leave is available to you. A pre-school child will need a consistent carer for a period of time and opportunity to bond with the new parent(s).

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What can you expect from us?

We will give you information, preparation, training and support. Adoptive families inevitably need resources to deal with those additional parenting issues which all adopted children bring.

The process

• You will initially enquire by completing our on-line form , telephone or letter. At this point we will need basic information about you.
• We will send you an information pack within two working days of receiving your request.
• You will need to let us know if you wish to discuss your enquiry further. We will then contact you within three weeks, to arrange an appointment.
• The appointment, when arranged will be to discuss your enquiry in more detail. Two social workers will visit your home, to give you information, answer your questions and find out more about you.
• Following this meeting you will have time to decide whether Adoption may be right for you and we will advise you whether we feel the time is right for us to begin working with you towards that.
• You will be asked to complete a consent form in order that we can begin taking up references from your local Social Services, Education, Health, Police, Probation, the Department of Health Consultancy and your GP. References from your personal referees will be sought at a later stage.
• You will be invited to our next preparation/training course which currently runs three times a year. Included in the training is the opportunity to hear from adopters, birth parents, adult adoptees and foster carers about their personal experiences.
• After this preparation course you can reflect on whether you wish to proceed and a social worker from the course will visit to discuss any issues which have arisen.
• A social worker will be allocated to complete your assessment. This is sometimes called a Home Study or Form F assessment. We would expect the assessment to include 6 - 8 visits to you as well as visits to your personal referees. The aim is for your assessing social worker to get to know as much as possible about you and your family and what you have to offer as adopters. We aim to complete the assessment process over a period of six months.
• You will be expected to contribute to the report as well as read and comment on what the social worker writes.
• Your assessing social worker will present the report to the London Borough of Hillingdon's Adoption and Permanency Panel, who will make a recommendation to the Agency Decision Maker concerning your approval. You will have the opportunity to attend the Panel and will be informed of the Panels recommendation within 24 hours. This will be followed by written notification of the Agency decision within seven working days.
• You will have developed a relationship with your assessing social worker who will become your Supervising Social Worker and will provide individual support up to the time of an Adoption Order being made.
• Any proposed match between a child and an adoptive family is taken to the Adoption Panel for discussion and if they recommend the match then the final decision is taken by the Agency Decision Maker ( usually the head of the childcare service).
• Once a match is agreed, introductions and visits are planned and will take place over a period of approximately one week to one month depending on the age and needs of the child(ren) as well as your personal circumstances.
• Once a child or children are placed with adopters, the local authority continues to have responsibility for monitoring and reviewing the child's progress and welfare until an Adoption Order is made. The time scale for this depends on the age of the child, his/her needs and any legal complexities. Experience indicates this takes at least six months.
• We recognise that post-adoption support is important for adoptive families. We provide this service to all adopters directly and by subscribing to the Post Adoption Centre , a specialist organisation for adopters, adoptees and birth families.

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Reviewed September 2005.