The Black Adoption Project – creating better futures for Black adopted children in London

Adopt London South Support

At Adopt London South we understand that adopted children have often had a difficult start in life and can struggle with relationships, making sense of their past and making attachments to their family and routines.

Contact us

For any enquiries relating to Adoption Support, please e-mail us at the [email protected] where the mailbox is regularly monitored. We welcome e-mail enquiries, which are often progressed quicker.

Alternatively, if you feel you would like to speak with someone, call 020 7525 4491. The Post Adoption Helpline is open Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 4.00pm. Outside of these hours, please leave a message with your name and contact details and a Social Worker will endeavour to contact you the next working day.

For any enquiries relating to Letterbox, please email the Letterbox Team [email protected] or call on 020 7525 1376.

If your enquiry relates to Adopted Adults then please e-mail [email protected]

For any enquires regarding an interest in Adoption, then please contact the Recruitment Line, via email [email protected]  or call 020 7525 1746.

Our support services

If you wish to contact the Adoption Support Service for additional support for your family we assess your family’s needs and will refer you to one of the following services:

  • Virtual outreach clinics by appointment only
  • The Adopt London South Advice & Consultation Service
  • PAC-UK Advice Line on 020 7284 5879 (open Monday, Tuesday, and Friday 10.00am to 4.00pm, and Wednesday and Thursday 2.00pm to 7.30pm) or via email: [email protected]
  • Themed Workshops & Training including the Great Behaviour Breakdown (GBB), Non-Violence Resistance (NVR), Saturday Workshops and Adopter led workshops such as Attachment Sense, Sensory and Life Story work
  • One-off consultation with a psychotherapist by referral
  • A Transracial Adoption Support Group for adopters with children, prospective adopters without children and adult adoptees.
  • Signposting (and referral where necessary) to other appropriate services and or support groups.

Our Post Adoption Support Team endeavours to provide an initial response to your query needs within five days at point of receipt. However, if your circumstances become more difficult please call our helpline and request a telephone consultation with one of our experienced social workers.  They will contact you to arrange a time for the consultation.

Please be advised that we prioritise existing Adoption Support Funding (ASF) applications for further funding to minimise disruption to current therapies where this is appropriate and continues to meet your family’s needs.

Letterbox & family time contact

Letterbox is a service for adoptive parents and birth relatives to exchange written information that will benefit the child they all care about. This service is run by a team of Letterbox Co-ordinators and a consultant social worker who manages the exchange of letter for the ten local authorities covered by Adopt London South including Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth.

We have helpline for all letterbox related calls that operates from Tuesday to Friday from 10am-4pm on 020 7525 1376, you can also contact the team via email on [email protected]

For more information please read the attached ALS Letterbox Service Factsheet.

The Great Behaviour Breakdown training

The Great Behaviour Breakdown is a ground-breaking parenting approach that has helped even the most difficult of family situations find stability and healing. Adoptive parents whose children have suffered abuse and or trauma require specialist knowledge and skills in order to parent successfully and maintain their own and their children’s emotional and physical well-being.

This training will help families shift away from anger and blame, frustration, and hopelessness into a place of understanding, compassion and love. It focusses on the parent-child relationship and helps parents to create environments for their children which are safe and conducive to building strong love-based attachment relationships.

Behaviours covered will include: lying, stealing, hoarding, gorging, food issues, aggression, defiance, transitions, bedtimes, bath times, lack of eye contact, conscience and social skills, sexualised behaviours and self-harm.

If you have a child in placement this course can be funded through the ASF, the cost being £550 for a single person and £820 for a couple.

This course takes place online for five consecutive mornings from 9:30 am to 12:30 am and you will need to attend all the sessions. 

Monday 22, Tuesday 23, Wed 24, Thurs 25 and Fri 26 April or,  

Monday 24, Tuesday 25, Wed 26, Thurs 27 and Fri 18 June.

Further dates will be released for the Autumn later this year.

Places will be allocated on a first come first service basis please contact [email protected]

An introduction to Therapeutic Life Story Work

An online lunchtime workshop presented by therapeutic life story workers from the Adopt London South Support Team. The main discussion points include will the Richard Rose model and associated research, incorporating birth families and sharing pasts stories.

The workshop will be delivered on Thursdays from 1-2pm on Thursday 28 March, on Thursday 23 May, on Thursday 25 July, and on Thursday 24 October.

Adoptive families wishing to attend should contact [email protected]

Join The Adoptables

The Adoptables is a social group for adopted young people that provides those between the age of 8 and 18 a platform to talk about their unique life, school, their adoption experiences and develop relationships with other adopted young people.

The young people are also encouraged to share their views on adoption-related topics, to help shape our adoption practices and influence the development of ALS service. Take a look at the Adoptables logo that one of the adopted young people created, and an acrostic that the under 12s group created.

A – AMAZING, Awesome
D – Depressing, Dramatic, Demanding
O – Optional, Ordinary
P – Parents, Petrifying.
T – Terrifying, Terrific, Therapy, Terrible
A – Adorable, Annoying, Adoption
B – Brave, Behaviour, Brilliant
L – Lovable, Lovely,
E – Extraordinary, Exciting,
S – Super, Supportive, Superb, Special, Social Workers

Get Involved – If you are an adopted young person and would like to meet with other young people like you please email: [email protected]

Support from our partners

We have identified a number of membership services that may interest some families.

WAF Talks deliver 2-3 webinar events a month, to provide specific information relevant to adoptive parents. All WAF Talks webinars and meetings are recorded for future access by WAF members, so you never have to miss out. All events are designed and run by adopters, on a voluntary basis. Rather than offering advice, they offer community.  To access WAF Talks sign up for a free WAF membership, visit their website.

NATP Logo

The National Association of Therapeutic Parents (NATP) offers a range of support group services, peer support online, a members hotline for 1-2-1 consultation, listening circles,  plus training and advice to families. This short video will help to explain more about the NATP services. Please call on 01453 519000 to discuss membership and its benefits.

Guides to adoption support for children and young persons

It can be difficult growing up being adopted. Adopted children may have questions about their past, need reassurance or want more information.  It is important that adopted children are encouraged to talk about their feelings, are aware of the support that is available for them, and who they can talk to confidentially.

We have produced Children’s Guide to Adoption Support and Young Persons Guide to Adoption Support – depending on your child’s age group for you to download, read and share with your young people about the types of adoption support that is available to them. These aim to answer some of frequently asked questions, to provide assurance about their experience of adoption and direct them to where they can access support. If you have any questions about the guides, if you would like a printed copy, or require them in braille or in different language please do not hesitate to contact us.

Also available to download from our website are The Children and Young Person’s Guide to adoption. These guides can help children to understand more about what was happening, and address common questions such as what adoption means, who are the people making the decisions and how their life will change. Reading these aloud can help children understand and relate it to how they might be feeling, and can help reduce anxiety.

Comments, Complaints and Compliments

If you wish to make a complaint, provide a compliment or comment about the Adopt London South Adoption Support Team please email the Service Manager [email protected] . If you wish to make a complaint about your child’s Local Authority please refer to that Local Authority’s complaints service.

Do you want to speak to someone?

Let us help you to find the advice you need

Feedback

Please help us to improve this website by providing some short feedback.

Site feedback

Please provide your feedback below, answering all questions.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
Did you find what you were looking for?
How clear was the information?
How easy was it find what you were looking for?
Would you recommend this website to other people?