Adoption Matters is delighted to join adoption agencies across the North East and Cumbria to find loving homes for children more quickly by encouraging people to foster first through Early Permanence.
Early Permanence includes Concurrent Planning, Fostering for Adoption or Foster to Adopt and it involves fostering a baby or young child initially with the hope of going on to legally adopt them.
It removes the need for the child to be placed with separate foster carers while they wait for the court to decide their plan, reducing disruption and uncertainty for them.
Vicky Davidson Boyd, Chair of the North East and Cumbria Early Permanence Project, said Early Permanence is much more “child-centred” than other traditional methods of adoption.
“The benefits are so great, adoption agencies from across the wider north region are combining their efforts to encourage more people interested in adoption to consider it.
“Early Permanence offers greater security for the babies and children involved and leads to less moving from one home to another in the care system.
“It allows for a child to be placed with their potential long-term carers at the earliest stage, so they can bond more quickly, with both the child and family being part of each other’s life experiences as soon as possible.
“It gives children stability at a sensitive time in their development and growth and helps them to develop a secure and loving attachment with their carers – it really is the best option,” expressed Vicky.
There is an element of uncertainty with Early Permanence in that children are often placed early, before all assessments on the birth family or extended family have been completed and before the final care plan is known – this means that there is a chance that the courts may decide it’s best for the child to be placed back with his or her birth family or extended family before the adoption takes place.
Carers are fully supported throughout this ‘fostering’ phase and fully trained for reunifications back to birth family and they are involved in all care planning decisions as soon as they are made.
Whilst it is a very emotional and stressful time for Early Permanence carers when this does happen, when it is right for the child and their family carers can take great pride and comfort that they have been part in the child’s early life journey.
For Adoption Matters parents Rachael and Paul (pictured above), the uncertainty was worth taking when they adopted their three children through Early Permanence.
Rachael says:
“A couple of friends of friends had adopted and recommended Adoption Matters so we got in touch.
“We decided to get more information about Early Permanence and attended an information evening – it was so informative and explained everything so clearly.
“After this, something just clicked and we really felt that whatever happened, knowing that we would had a part to play in such a vital time of a child’s life would surely help with the difficulty of a reunification.
“The training is rigorous and because of the Early Permanence route we’d chosen there was even more to do given that we were to be approved as foster carers as well as adopters.
“However, through it all we knew, one day, we would have our children – this was a guarantee that could never be certain through fertility treatment.
“We had said from the beginning that we would like siblings, Paul and I both have siblings, he is one of three and I am one of four, and our social worker knew us so well that she knew when she approached us about this particular placemant that it was the one.
“She told us of a little boy aged 4 and his younger sister aged 17 months, she then shared that birth mum was also pregnant with sibling number 3 – we did have to think about it obviously, as going from zero to three children almost instantly was far more than we had planned, but we were also of the attitude that we’d waited so long and we loved the idea of siblings being able to stay together, so we said yes.
“The Early Permanence route is possibly one of the most difficult ways, in my opinion, to have a family, as the uncertainty leading up to getting the adoption order was tough – we had to block out the fear of not knowing if the children would become ours one day and remind ourselves that the time we have with them is not only making a difference to them, but also bringing us joy too.
“Therefore, our mindset was that whatever happens, we will deal with it when it happens, but despite all of this we are so glad that we chose the Early Permanence route as it is so valuable for the children.
“We are able to talk about birth parents first hand because we got to know them a bit – we can share first hand anecdotes with our children and this has been especially important with our eldest, as he talks about them and we are glad to be able to share things with him.”
The couple are now encouraging other people to consider adopting through Early Permanence.
Last year, 54 children were placed in Early Permanence placements across the North East and Cumbria – a 44% increase on the year before and none of those children were reunified with their birth family. In the first quarter of this year, one child was reunified with their birth family.
Adoption Matters is very experienced in supporting Early Permanence as from 2014 to January 2024, we have delivered a Concurrent Planning Service in partnership with Caritas Care.
The service grew to be the largest of its kind in the UK placing over 187 children in Early Permanence placements and it led the way in the Early Permanence arena.
In January 2024, due to the changing adoption landscape, our Concurrent Planning service teams moved back in-house bringing their wealth of experience.
Adoption Matters CEO Susy White comments:
“Having offered an Early Permanence service for over 10 years now, our teams are highly experienced in offering tailored support and training to anyone who chooses this route to adopt.
“We also offer dedicated Early Permenance information events as well as a wide range of peer support groups to connect with other families.
“We are delighted to be part of the North East and Cumbria Early Permanence Project working in collaboration with our colleagues.”
Early Permanence carers are also entitled to foster care allowance during the fostering phase of any placement and for those who are in employment, adoption leave and pay are also available once a child is placed for adoption.
To find out more about Early Permanence with Adoption Matters, please visit: www.adoptionmatters.org/ep or call us free on 0300 123 1066 and download a full adoption guide here.
The North East Early Permanence project commissioned a new animation told through a real life experience of *Jess and her brother *Jake – this can be watched below.
*Names changed to protect identities