Volunteer Adoption Panel Members

About Adoption Matters

Adoption Matters is a registered children’s charity and one of the largest voluntary adoption agencies (VAAs) in the UK. We recruit, train and support individuals and families as adopters and offer them ongoing support and training for as long as they need it. We also provide support to birth families and adopted adults. Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ since 2008, the ONLY adoption service in the North of England rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted 5 times in a row.

For more information on the management team and our board of trustees, click here.

Volunteer Adoption Panel Members

Adoption Matters adoption panels are held regularly both in person and remotely online via Teams. The panel reviews every adoption application to adopt and makes a recommendation to our Agency Decision Maker regarding the applicant’s suitability to adopt. This is part of the legal process to be an approved adopter.

At Adoption Matters, we want to make sure that our adoption panels continue to be warm, friendly and approachable and we know how much prospective adopters appreciate the sense of their applications being considered by people similar to themselves. We also recognise that we place children with a wide range of needs from a huge variety of backgrounds. As such, we encourage expressions of interest from all areas of the community. Under adoption regulations, people who have adopted need to wait at least 12 months after the making of any adoption order before they can join a panel.

Please be advised that our panel members are volunteers and as such while travel expenses can be claimed, it is an unpaid role.

If you would like to explore joining one of our panels further, in the first instance, please get in touch with our Service Managers, Paul Dolan at Paul.dolan@adoptionmatters.org – for our panels held in Blackburn and Durham, or Jacqui Shore at Jacqui.shore@adoptionmatters.org – for our panels held in Chester, to find out more about what is involved.