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Early Permanence is where children in care are placed at the earliest opportunity with adopters who are also approved as foster carers. Early Permanence is an umbrella term for concurrent planning, fostering for adoption, foster to adopt placements!
The terminology may sound confusing, but the aim of all is to minimise placements and disruption for children entering care, enabling children to form better early attachments.
Local authorities have a duty to ensure that every child with a plan for adoption is placed in their permanent home as soon as possible. An early permanence placement must now be considered in every case where the child cannot be cared for by their birth family.
Early permanence approaches aim to place children where the courts are still considering whether they can safely return to the care of their family or whether they might need to be adopted. Children identified for an early permanence placement have a higher risk of being unable to return to their birth family and a likelihood of adoption for their permanence plan. Early permanence carers are approved as both foster carers and adopters and will initially perform the role of foster carer while the courts decide whether or not a child can return to his/ her birth family.
Early permanence isn’t for everyone, but if this is a route you wish to find more about, please do contact us and we can talk to you about it in more detail and invite you to a dedicated information event.
Adoption Matters were proud to collaborate with adoption agencies across the North East and Cumbria to produce this animation, inspired by a real life experience of a young person Jess* and her little brother Jake*. (names changed to protect identities).
Early Permanence placements are intended to give children stability in their early years, reducing the moves and enabling them to make secure attachments to carers who may go on to adopt them. Early Permanence placements are already showing positive results in improving outcomes for children where adoption is the likely path to permanence
Rachael and Paul adopted three children through the Early Permanence route to adoption. Here Rachel talks about their journey…
“We had always wanted children and just assumed it would happen after we got married. After many years of fertility treatments and painful procedures, we accepted that we couldn’t have birth children. We would never accept that we couldn’t have children though as we knew, one way or another, we would have a family.
We first looked into Early Permanence as we really wanted the chance to have a baby, which Early Permanence offered. But we knew almost nothing about it and had vaguely heard of it in the form of Foster to Adopt. Initially, we felt it would be too hard to contemplate having to go through any sort of rehabilitation (when a child goes back to their birth family) after already suffering so much loss.
Laura and Sandra Davies are thankful every day for the family life they have created. The couple, from Whitley Bay, welcomed their daughter Leona via IVF ten years’ ago, and then decided to adopt through early permanence. They welcomed their son Jasper, when he was just three days old.
In this You Can Adopt podcast, hosted by radio DJ Pandora Christie, Pandora speaks to guest Jonny about his experience of adopting through early permanence. Jonny is an Adoption Matters adopter who adopted through the early permanence route of concurrent planning.
During any fostering phase, carers are paid a fostering allowance and there will be regular supervised contact with birth family in a neutral venue, which carers need to be available to take the child to.
Most often, this approach is identified for very young children but this is changing and we are placing children up to the age of 6 years often with their younger siblings, in early permanence placements.
Early Permanence placements are intended to give children stability in their early years, reducing the moves and enabling them to make secure attachments to carers who may go on to adopt them. Early Permanence placements are already showing positive results in improving outcomes for children where adoption is the likely path to permanence
Early permanence shifts the uncertainty from the child to the carers and provides greater protection for the child against any delays. As an early permanence carer, you will be given full support and training to help you manage this.
Annie and Jay, adopted their two children aged 2 and 4 through Early Permanence – Fostering for Adoption.
The process was a lot less scary than I had originally thought it would be and Adoption Matters were amazing. As Christians, we journeyed with Home for Good who then put us in touch with Adoption Matters, whom they partner with. Adoption Matters bigged up our faith and showed how it was an advantage in adoption. It’s not been all sunshine and roses and there have been (and still are) challenges along the way. But it is so rewarding and has given us a completely new perspective on life and faith.
*Names changed to protect identity
A blog from an Early Permanence carer (through concurrent planning) shares her experiences and thoughts about surviving & thriving after a rehabilitation home to birth family.
To all future and present carers: I am a single, early permanence / concurrent carer who has had a baby return to birth family. By sharing some of my experiences, insights and tips, I hope I can help you build awareness and strengthen your early permanence muscles.
Click the link below to read the full blog
Our teams are very experienced in supporting early permanence. From 2014 to January 2024, we delivered a Concurrent Planning Service in the North West in partnership with another VAA Caritas Care.
The service grew to be the largest of its kind in the UK placing over 187 children in early permanence placements. The service led the way in the Early Permanence arena and helped pave the way for many of the services across the country. In January 2024, due to the changing adoption landscape, our concurrent planning service teams moved back in-house bringing a wealth of experience into on early permanence. Read more about the service here
We will discuss early permanence in detail to help you decide if this option is right for you. Should you decide to consider early permanence, full training and support will be provided.
