Support for adopters

Very few families get through life without support at different times and from different people and places. This is particularly true for adoptive families where even very young children can have a complex past, and specific needs that require additional specialist support.

Staff from Adoption Counts are here to help at every stage of your journey. We provide a wide and extensive range of adoption support services for adopters and their children.

If you would like to get in touch with the Adoption Support Team, please fill in the relevant form on this page: Get in touch — Adoption Counts

Support through the adoption process

At Adoption Counts, we believe in offering support to adoptive families throughout the adoption process from preparation prior to approval to ongoing and specialist support when needed. We will work closely with you so you understand the full process that you’ll go through and the likely timescales. You will have a social worker alongside you on the journey, who can answer your questions and help you at every stage.

We know that the process of applying to become an adopter can feel overwhelming and stressful at times, so we’ll do all we can to make it a little easier.

  • It’s vital that children for whom adoption has been identified as a viable option are closely supported at every stage, and we proud that our approach does just this. Each child will be paired with an Adoption Counts ‘Family Finder’; someone who will have the time to really get to know the child, their needs and their background, and who can advise and support the child’s Social Worker. They also take time to consider any specialist needs a child may have, and start planning longer term support, so plans can be in place even before adoption takes place. Our Family Finders play a really important role in helping to find the right family for the child.

  • After a ‘match’ has been confirmed our adopters receive lots of information about the child they have been matched with. This lays out the child’s specific strengths and needs and the child’s life story so far. At this stage we share the child’s Adoption Support plan that has lots of details and specialist advice tailored to the child. We also start to share advice on how adopters can take their first steps as therapeutic parents to an adopted child, and even a ‘later life letter’ for them to share with their child when they are older to help them understand why they were adopted.

We do all this to make sure adopters feel ready, prepared and supported from the very start of their relationship with their child.

Support for adoptive families

We offer a lifetime of support, to both adoptive parents and their children. We are proud to have developed our support services alongside and with the help of adopted families, so we can offer the right approach, at the right time.

  • The child’s Social Worker will visit regularly until the Adoption Order is granted. If some additional support would be helpful at this stage then they can help to make this happen.

  • As you begin your lives together as a family, and as your children grow and develop additional issues may arise. We are here to provide whatever support may be useful to you at that time. This could range from informal advice to exploring whether additional help or interventions are needed.

  • This helps the child understand their identity and allows both birth families and adoptive families to exchange information on a regular basis. It is the responsibility of the Local Authority who placed your children with you to manage indirect (often referred to as letterbox) contact and any other keeping in touch arrangements that your child needs.

  • If your child or your family need support from a psychologist, this is available. The Adoption Psychology Service consists of Clinical and Educational Psychologists, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and Therapeutic Social Workers and together they provide therapeutic services and advice to other services (like your child’s school).

  • Each school has a designated teacher who is responsible for the educational needs of looked-after and previously looked-after children (including adopted children). The designated teacher at your child’s school is the best person to make contact in the first instance. However each local authority in the Adoption Counts area also now has its own ‘virtual school’ set up to build a bridge between the education and social care systems, and they can provide extensive support to you and your child. You’ll find the details of your virtual school in our resource hub section of this site.

The levels of support available - the I-Thrive approach

We have worked closely with adopters to identify what good adoption support looks like. Together, we have identified three key levels of support, based on the I-Thrive model of care:

  • Universal support - Getting advice

  • Targeted support - Getting help and

  • Specialist support - Getting more help

Dividing services up in this way helps us to identify the right service to meet your needs. You don’t have to access the universal services before being able to get services from the targeted group, but often accessing universal services early on can prevent the need for services at the targeted and specialist levels.

  • Our Universal services are all about getting advice and being signposted to the right place or people. This support can include a very wide range of things, including Adopter Support Groups, evening workshops on popular topics, 1-1 consultations, Pupil Premium Plus consultation, training and advice for your child’s school, peer mentoring from another adopter and on online support platform.

    If you would like to access universal services you can call us on 0161 521 8847 or email Firstresponse@adoptioncounts.org.uk.

  • This is all about getting help. It can involve direct work with children, one to one support for yourself or access to therapeutic parenting groups like theraplay-informed parenting groups, Non-Violent Resistance support and couples' psychotherapy. To access these services, you will need to ring the adoption support team on 0161 521 8847 or be referred by another professional (teacher, social worker, health visitor etc).

  • Our specialist support helps you to get more help, if you need it. Specialist support can only be accessed if a Social Worker has undertaken an assessment and recommends that additional therapy is required, and it might include Theraplay, sensory processing, creative therapies such as play therapy, art and music therapy amongst many other approaches.

i-THRIVE Model of Care - Adoption Support

Getting Advice and Signposting

Single point of access with assessment by adoption SW

Creating a comprehensive network of community and independent (ASGSF) providers to signpost/refer onto

Self-help and peer-support groups e.g. Adopter Forums, support groups, Family Fun days, letterbox support, information regarding adoption

Workshops and brief training (e.g. Life story, Attachment, Behaviour management, school support/processes)

Getting Help

Provided by therapeutic social workers under supervision of psychologist/in collaboration

Brief evidence based/evidence informed interventions & training using clear outcomes and goal based measures to measure change

Parent training to increase understanding of attachment e.g. Nurturing Attachments; Therapeutic parenting.

Parenting groups to target specific behavioural/attachment needs e.g. Non Violent resistance (NVR); Theraplay-informed parenting.

Individual/group skills training for children targeting behavioural, emotional and social skills

Getting More Help

Provided by a specialist CAMHS & adoption psychologist

Comprehensive CAMHS assessments: (including prior to matching) e.g. neurodevelopmental/cognitive assessments; attachment & parenting needs assessments; ASD and ADHD assessments; psychotherapy assessments

Standardised assessment tools, outcomes & goal based measures

Specialist interventions (tailored and holistic approaches): collaborative & multi-systemic interventions involving child, school and parents; Individual parenting interventions, Family Therapy; Individual Psychotherapy; Individual CBT; EMDR; Group interventions e.g. DBT

Risk Support

Integrated multi-agency approach with joint accountability for outcomes

Comprehensive risk assessment and safety plans co-produced between agencies & young people

Emphasis on developing support network for young person and family

Core THRIVE principles delivered using evidence based approaches to delivery that fit the local context

  • Needs based care (not severity or diagnosis led)

  • Shared decision making at each point in pathway

  • Integration: multiagency teams that are trained and located together, with common processes and outcome frameworks

  • Training clinicians to have clarity about when treatment is being provided vs. support, to promote and support self help and to enable shared decision making

If you would like to get in touch with the Adoption Support Team, please fill in the relevant form on this page: Get in touch — Adoption Counts