Support for adoptive parents
Adopted children have often had a difficult start in life and they may struggle with relationships and attachments to their new family and routines throughout different points of their life. All children should be able to grow up as part of a loving family that can meet their developmental needs during childhood, and it is important to recognise that accessing adoption support services is completely normal and available for all adoptive families.
Lifelong adoption support is available and your Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) can advise you on the adoption support services that may be available to you in your local area.
Find your regional adoption support
The local authority that places your child with you is responsible for assessing your adoption support needs for the three years following the adoption order. After three years, it becomes the responsibility of the local authority or regional adoption agency where you live, this may be the same adoption agency that placed your child or different.
If the child has lived with you for more than three years then contact your local regional adoption agency to find out what support services might be available in your area. If you adopted through a Voluntary Adoption Agency (VAA) you could approach that adoption agency to discuss what post adoption support services they can provide to help your family. If necessary, your agency could help you approach your regional adoption agency for additional adoption support services.
Specialist adoption support services
If you want advice on adoption support you can also contact one of the many adoption support organisations in England which are listed at the end of this page, such as Adoption UK or PAC-UK.
Areas of support
Find out more about each of the areas of adoption support that are available to adopters in England. Agencies can access universal services available for adopters and act as a central hub for information and tailored advice. Adoption agencies will also offer their own bespoke range of support services including training and workshops, family days and meet ups with other adopters so it's best to speak to your adoption agency about what the support they offer. Support services in your area may include:
Adoption support podcast
Specialist help organisations for adoptive parents
National model of adoption support
Adoption England is developing a national model of adoption support to strengthen how support is understood, delivered and experienced across the country. This work is being led by Jo Williams, Health Programme Lead at Adoption England and Alison Woodhead, Commissioning Programme Manager at Adoption England with Jo leading the development of the model and Alison leading stakeholder engagement.
This work will continue throughout much of this year, and there will be many opportunities for people to get involved and help shape the model.
Know more: https://www.adoptionengland.co.uk/national-model-adoption-support
Adopters with complaints or issues
Adopters and adoptive families that are unhappy with the service or support arrangements they've received form their local authority or adoption agency, can first file a complaint via the agency's internal complaints procedure. If you're still not happy with the outcome or service you've received afterwards, it might be helpful to contact Citizens Advice or your Local Government Ombudsman for independent advice.