Adoption Matters Support – A Statement

We are saddened to read the coverage in today’s news about the experiences of adoptive families who have faced severe challenges and have felt unsupported.

We know that adoption support can vary across different agencies but the one thing we do know, is that every adopted child will need support.

At Adoption Matters, we offer all our adopter families early support which starts in their assessment stages before a child has been placed. Our Centre for Fostering and Adoption Support offers bespoke early support packages that are uniquely adapted to each individual family’s needs and are aimed at encouraging positive bonds between parents and children, as well as encouraging healthy relationships between siblings.

Our therapeutic approach runs through everything we do, and we have offered this ongoing support for many years, decades before additional Government funding was available and we will continue to do so. We are here for our families, when they need us, from the first phone call to the first grandchild and beyond as we offer support to our adopted adults too.

Our most recent Ofsted inspection stated:

The quality of adoption support is a significant strength of the agency. Highly trained professionals offer high-quality services to families

Adopters benefit from access to ongoing support groups, with consideration given to communities within the wider adopter community, such as multi-cultural support groups and single adopter support groups.

The Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies summarised in their statement today following the news coverage:

Voluntary Adoption Agencies are at the sharp end of these (support) challenges because 80% of the children they find homes for fall into the most complex needs categories, but they don’t directly receive any government funding to deliver support. The huge investments made in adoption support services by VAAs comes from their own fundraising efforts and through generous trusts and grants. This way VAA adopters can continue to access support that is evidence based and lifelong, which families can tap into whenever they need.

We hope that the recent coverage highlighting the struggles of many adoptive families, whose voices have too often gone unheard, will lead to meaningful improvements across all areas of adoption support.

For more information on our support offer, visit: www.adoptionmatters.org/cfas