Finding Your Child

Once you're within six weeks of your approval panel date, we'll meet with you and work on your behalf with social workers from Local Authorities and Regional Adoption Agencies across England, Wales and Scotland who are looking for families for their children. We have great relationships with Local Authorities who know how well-prepared and supported our adopters are.

This family finding process begins before you're approved as an adopter. You'll continue to work with your social worker, and you'll have additional support from our dedicated Linking & Matching Officer. Together, you'll create an approved adopter profile, highlighting your strengths and personality, and the details of what you're looking for in a child or children. You'll also get access to Linkmaker, a national database of children waiting to be adopted, and you'll be offered the opportunity to attend activity days and profile exchange days if you wish.

Our team is very experienced in family finding and will guide you through the linking and matching process at your own pace, advocating for your skills, strengths and qualities. 

We ensure that we support you in information sharing so that each link is considered carefully and that you feel fully informed. Every other month, we invite you to join other prospective adopters for an online discussion to discuss a specific topic related to family finding, giving you the opportunity to listen to the experiences of adopters who have had their children placed. We consider it a privilege to support you in your family finding journey and are committed to understanding your unique circumstances, being friendly, responsive and sensitive in our approach.

Finding the child who needs you

There are hundreds of children waiting to be adopted. They come from a variety of backgrounds, but all of them need to love and be loved in safe homes.

Children available for adoption are normally aged 0-11 years. Those aged four and over usually wait the longest to be adopted. There are single children and brothers and sisters in need of parents who will adopt them and provide a secure, supportive family. 

The children come from all backgrounds, and we try to match the child’s ethnicity, cultural and religious heritage with their adoptive family. For this reason, we need white, black, Asian and mixed heritage adopters who practise all faiths or have no faith.

Why do children become available for adoption?

Some children become available for adoption because their birth parents request adoption for them. More often, children are removed by a court order on the grounds of neglect or abuse. The birth family may have experienced a variety of problems including alcohol or drug dependency, domestic violence, learning difficulties, or mental/physical ill health. In these circumstances, adoption will allow these children to move to a stable, supportive and loving home.

At Adoption Focus we understand the children’s needs and what they may have experienced in their young lives. We provide lifelong support, which starts with helping you to develop your skills and gain confidence to become the parents you want to be and that these children need.

Early Permanence

Early Permanence, or fostering for adoption, enables a child who cannot live with their birth family to be placed with foster carers who are also approved as adopters whilst a decision is made about their future. After a time the courts may decide that the child can be returned to their birth family. However, if the courts decide that the child should be placed for adoption, the fostering placement becomes an adoption placement.

Early Permanence is a child-focused adoption pathway. It reduces the number of moves that a child experiences. It requires resourceful, emotionally resilient families who are able to put the needs of babies and children first.