Adoption

Buckinghamshire Council’s Adoption Service

What the Adoption Service does:

• Recruit, assess, train and support prospective adopters.
• Assist in the planning and placement for adoption, of children who are not able to safely return to the care of their birth families.
• Provide assessments for adoption support as well as some direct services, including support groups for adopted adults, adoptive parents and adopted children.
• Work with adopted adults and their relatives who wish to trace or be reunited with birth relatives.
• Work with family and friend carers including foster carers and Special Guardians.
• Provide ongoing support for adoptive parents and their families including:
  • Week day advice line
  • Termly groups  for primary and secondary aged children
  • Regular training workshops for adoptive families
  • Twice yearly social events for adoptive families and regular newsletters

What the Adoption Service needs:

• Adoptive parents for children aged 3-9 years
• Foster for early permanence carers for children aged 0-3 years
• Especially adoptive parents who will consider children:
  • as part of sibling groups
  • of black or dual heritage
  • above the age of 3 years –
  • to care for children with disabilities of all ages

Who can adopt?

The Adoption Service welcomes enquires from the LGBTQ+ community.  If you are in a partnership, either through marriage, civil partnership or a stable living arrangement you can both legally adopt a child. You will need to demonstrate that your partnership is stable, permanent and will be able to withstand the challenges that adoption can bring. They would usually expect couples to have been together for at least 3 years.

Single people can also adopt. This arrangement can be seen as a positive choice for some children. As with people in partnerships, applicants will need to show that they have strong and supportive network of family and friends to call on when they need to. They will also need to consider arrangements in the event that single applicants become ill or unable to look after the child after adopting a child.

Support for Adoptive Parents

Provides support and advice to Adopters and Special Guardians who live in Buckinghamshire or where the adoption/special guardianship was arranged by Buckinghamshire Council.

Advice line is open

Mon, Thurs and Fri 9.30am-1pm Tues & Wed 1.30-5pm please phone 01494 586626.

All adopters and special guardians are entitled to an assessment of need on request until their children are aged 18. Buckinghamshire  Council also offers a range of additional services over and above our statutory duty. Please call us to find out more.

If you are a birth parent or an adult adoptee and need some advice regarding adoption/special guardianship please contact Adoption Services.

Book onto an adoption information event | Buckinghamshire Council

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