Areas of work
Adoption England supports and delivers many projects helping to modernise and improve adoption services for children and families. Our work is split into 6 key priority areas:
Early Permanence (EP)
Early Permanence (EP), also referred to as concurrent planning or foster to adopt, is a child-centred practice that aims to reduce the number of moves a child in care has by approving prospective adopters as foster carers for a child whose plan for adoption is not yet agreed by the court. Adoption England works with two dedicated groups: The EP Working Group and The EP Practice and Development group to promote and improve Early Permanence practice. The groups work on a number of projects across the country, such as looking at EP for older children and increasing access to EP carers, as well as running national events and workshops.
Maintaining relationships for adopted people
Several projects are taking place that aim to modernise arrangements for children to stay in touch with people important to them following the adoption order, where it is safe to do so. It is vital for adopted people’s wellbeing to have a sense of belonging and identity, which maintaining such relationships can provide for them. We’re working with the University of East Anglia on a digital Letterswap pilot project that aims to provide a more meaningful solution for families, as well as projects looking to improve services for adopted adults and create a culture change for adoption professionals that enables them to be more open to children staying in touch with people important to them following adoption. We’re also working with Family rights group to improve awareness and access to support for birth families and a project looking to adapt the life long links model for adopted children.
Adopter journey
Projects are also taking place looking at improving the adopter journey to make the adoption process as seamless as possible, while being fair and accessible for all. This involves looking at the entire process from adopter recruitment to matching and covers all works areas. Adoption England has conducted several national mystery shop exercises to examine the first impressions potential adopter has when making an enquiry with an adoption agency. We have also commissioned specialist training for adoption professionals, aimed to improve the experience that adopters coming forward have, particularly focusing on those from more marginalised communities and backgrounds. National practice standards are in development regarding this area of practice.
Linking and matching
This workstream aims to reduce delay for children by improving matching practice and processes to ensure timely matching and maximise the opportunities for children to be matched with a family who can meet their needs. We have been commissioning activity days and exchange events for more children to meet with potential adopters in person, which has received positive feedback. We have provided several agencies with grants to enable them to improve their matching services regionally where it’s most needed. We’re also working on projects to increase the number of children from ethnic minority backgrounds specifically to be linked and matched more efficiently, as these children unfortunately wait longer than others to be adopted. The Team is working with adoption agencies to develop national practice standards for matching children with adoption as their plan with potential adopters.
Adopter recruitment
Adoption England is part of the National Adoption Recruitment Programme Board which deliver targeted recruitment campaigns for prospective adopters and training to improve adopter recruitment for local adoption agencies. The children waiting to be adopted are unique and each will come with their own level of need. There is a particular need for more adopters to come forward for children in sibling groups, those with complex and additional needs and children from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds. To find out more about becoming an adoptive parent, please visit You Can Adopt.
Adoption support
The focus of this workstream is to ensure that adoption support is embedded into every aspect of the adoption journey and ensure that all families can access high-quality, consistent adoption support services no matter where they live in England. A national consultation has taken place to assess the current picture relating to adoption support and offer suggestions of where improvements are needed. We also have several working groups looking at making improvements to the support agencies can offer adopters, such as developing national adoption support protocols and procedures. We are also currently developing working with adoption agencies to develop a national adoption support framework that will detail a core offer of support across all regional adoption agencies.
Multidisciplinary approaches to assessment and support in adoption services
The Department for Education has made funding available to Adoption England to develop multidisciplinary and multiagency approaches to adoption assessment and support services to improve the process for adopted people and their families.
The programme aims to support a partnership approach across local authorities and integrated care boards to bring together the knowledge and expertise of different agencies and professionals specialising in adoption. The current programme is running to March 2025.
Commissioning
The Adoption England “National Adoption Commissioning Programme”, funded by the Department for Education will explore both national and pan-RAA commissioning arrangements across the commissioning cycle of analyse and plan, implement and monitor and review.
The current programme is running until March 2025, and will be delivered by a national team of dedicated staff, made up of a small central team and representatives from the regions.
