Adoption Counts Support

We are here to help. We provide a wide and extensive range of adoption support services for adopters and their children, birth families and adopted people.

Our knowledgeable and committed adoption support team will support you throughout the whole process and beyond.

Find out more about the support services we provide for adoptive families, birth families and adopted adults, on the links below.

  • For a detailed explanation of the support services we offer, please visit our Guide to Adoption Support Services page.

    If you are an approved adopter enquiring about support when your social worker is unavailable, please ring our duty system on 0161 521 8847 or fill out our online form.

  • If your child has been adopted, we can support you with any specialist advice and counselling you need.

    We understand that adopted children benefit from having an understanding of their family history: therefore, we can also support you in maintaining contact with the adoptive family through our Keeping in Touch Team

    Keeping in touch can mean an exchange of letters, pictures or emails, or by keeping in touch in whatever way best supports your child. In some circumstances children will have direct or face to face contact with some of their birth relatives if this is deemed to be in their best interests?

    This service enables recent, up-to-date information about birth families to be shared with adoptive parents and communicated sensitively with the child. Knowing that their birth families are still interested and care about them can significantly help with a child’s development and mental wellbeing. Birth families can also be reassured that the child is happy and secure.

    We have a dedicated team to support keeping in touch, who can give support and advice to all involved.

    If you are a birth relative enquiring about letterbox please contact your allocated letterbox coordinator or fill out our online form. Please include child's full name, date of birth and Local Authority area.

    Useful contact: PAC-UK is an organisation that provides specialist therapy, advice, support, counselling and training for all affected by adoption and permanency. Their First Family Service offers free advice and support for birth mothers, fathers & relatives. If you want to find out more, you can email firstfamily@pac-uk.org or read more on www.pac-uk.org/our-services/birth-parents/

  • If you are an adopted adult and live in one of our five Local Authorities (Cheshire East, Manchester, Salford, Stockport, and Trafford) we can help you find out more about your birth family history. This involves supporting you to access your adoption records and providing information and advice about how to trace members of your birth family, if you make that the decision to do so.

    Before you get in touch, please read our page dedicated to accessing birth and adoption records: Adopted Adults | Adoption Counts (needs a link to another page)

    You can contact our Team by completing this online form.