Statement from Chief Executive

Statement from the Chief Executive, 26 March 2020

We are all living with uncertainty and face a difficult few months ahead. We want to let you know that we are here for you, you matter to us. As Adoption Matters is  primarily a home working organisation, we now have the opportunity to make the very most of the latest communication technology in keeping in touch with our families, prospective families, colleagues and friends.  We want to assure you that:

We are still open.  Adoption Matters is firmly committed to the health and safety of our staff, our families and the colleagues we work with across the UK. We are closely monitoring the changing situation and complying with the latest Government and public health guidance and we have now closed our 8 offices and all of our staff are now home based.  We are here Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (often outside of these times too through our online chat or social media pages), we can talk to you, email you, direct message or arrange a virtual video call. We have had to postpone some of our fundraising plans in the coming months but we are still here to support you and we are looking at offering virtual events such as a coffee morning and teddy bears picnic.

Your adoption journey can start and continue with us over the coming weeks and months If you have been thinking about adoption for some time, contact us, we are here and we can use the latest technology to make contact with you. Children are still waiting for individuals and families to consider adoption.  If you are in Stage 1 or 2 of your assessment with us, we are still continuing with our work. We can still process all our information securely and hold virtual panels. Some things may have to wait or be delayed such as certain checks and medicals, but we can and will still continue with a lot of our work now and pick up on tasks when this crisis is over.

We are here to support you  Through telephone support, virtually through video calls and virtual therapy sessions.  We are exploring the technology to be able to run virtual support events such as our children’s choir.  We are still able to assist you with accessing birth records, tracing and intermediary services it may be difficult for us to access any historical records given the current restrictions, however we would endeavour to do so as soon as is possible, so please continue to make an enquiry with us. .  All of our staff are well set up to support you and experienced at working from home using secure technology. Our Centre for Adoption Support team have been successfully trialling remote support sessions for the last six months and we feel this is an appropriate time to roll out this way of working to a wider range of families. As well as being in line with the Government’s advice on social distancing, we also feel that offering adoption support digitally and remotely can be a more convenient and accessible way to access therapeutic support for many of the families that we work with.

We are here for you and the children waiting. We are working hard and closely with our Regional Adoption Agency and Local Authority colleagues to ensure that this crisis does not mean that children have to wait longer.

Thank you for helping us to continue our important work with children and families in these most challenging circumstances.

Norman G. Goodwin, CBE

Chief Executive, Adoption Matters

www.adoptionmatters.org  Tel: 0300 123 1066  Email: info@adoptionmatters.org

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