Adopt London West

Adopt London West’s Adoption Support Offer

Here at Adopt London West there are many ways we help our families including:

• A local therapeutic surgery run by an independent charity PAC-UK, which provides confidential advice and counselling
• An adoption support assessment to consider what support your family might benefit from
• Therapeutic support via an application to the Adoption Support Fund
• Consultation with ALW’s clinical psychologist regarding the most appropriate therapeutic intervention. This may be directly with the psychologist or via an adoption support social worker
• Six half-termly evening education support seminars facilitated by an educational psychologist
• Training on further developing adopters’ therapeutic parenting skills via support seminars
• A six week ‘Foundations for Attachment’ training to develop adopters’ understanding of how trauma affects children – available 3 times per year. We will endeavour to ensure families are offered a place within the first-year post placement
• Linking with an experienced adopter who will provide informal support and guidance
• Reimbursement of the adoption application fee
• Support with facilitating contact arrangements – direct and indirect – via our letterbox system
• A regular newsletter, with articles and training events taking place locally, as well as changes in legislation and new initiatives;
• Regular social events for parents held either during the day or in the evening; and
• An annual fun event to enable adopters and their children to get together with other adoptive families.

Adoption Support Fund
Local authorities (LAs) and regional adoption agencies (RAAs) can apply for funding to cover the costs of various therapeutic interventions for eligible adoptive and special guardianship order families.

Due to early trauma and separation, adopted children have often developed certain coping mechanisms that means they can find it difficult to form relationships and can lead to challenging and worrying behaviour.

Maximum funding allocations for each child.

Until the end of the financial year 2020 to 2021 the ASF will have 2 fair access limits:

• £2,500 per child per year for a specialist assessment
• £5,000 per child per year for therapy

The majority of applications to the Fund fall within these limits. In exceptional cases, where there is an urgent need for higher cost support, local authorities are asked to match-fund applications.

More information can be found here  or you can also speak to one of our dedicated support staff that will be able to listen and talk to you more about the Adoption Support Fund.

ADOPTION ORGANISATIONS AND RESOURCES

PAC-UK is the country’s largest independent adoption support agency. They aim to support anyone affected by adoption, special guardianship and other forms of permanent care.

PAC-UK can provide specialist therapy, support, counselling and training. Their physical surgeries are currently closed but they are still running services virtually and via the telephone.

You can call the London office advice line: Tel 020 7284 5879

Open on Monday, Tuesday & Friday 10.00am – 4.00pm, and Wednesday & Thursday 2.00pm – 7.30pm

Adoption UK is a nationwide membership charity providing support, community and advocacy for all those parenting or supporting children who cannot live with their birth parents. Through their services, they connect adoptive families, provide information and signposting on a range of adoption-related issues and campaign for improvements to adoption policy and legislation at the highest levels.

We Are Family (WAF) is an independent adoption support community that operates in and around London. Membership is free and open to adopters and approved prospective adopters. You can join here They run peer-to-peer (i.e. parent-to-parent) events such as parent support groups, playgroups, family meet-ups, parties and socials. They also provide many opportunities to connect online, such as local group meet-ups on Zoom, webinars, blogs, a private Facebook group and other member resources on their website All events are designed and run by adopters, on a voluntary basis. Rather than offering advice, they offer community. They say it takes a village to raise a child. WAF wants to build those villages.

The Adopter Hub is dedicated to providing online support, learning opportunities and information for adopters. They offer one-to-one live webchat – online peer support, a specially developed Introduction to Attachment via a 12 module eLearning course, webinars with topics selected by adopters and resources covering a wide range of subjects.  You will need to request a log-in on their website to be able to access the hub.

Education
The Department for Education has issued new guidance on education support for previously looked-after children, which includes all children who have been adopted.

Virtual Head Teachers (VSHs) are not acting as part of the corporate parent role in these circumstances, but are there to promote the educational achievement of these children, through the provision of advice and information to relevant parties.

Each local authority has its own virtual school and VSH.  Please see below for the contact details of the virtual school in the local authorities in partnership with Adopt London West:

Brent: [email protected] Tel: 020 8937 3189.

Ealing: [email protected] Tel: 020 8825 6648

Hammersmith& Fulham: [email protected] Tel: 020 8753 5521

Hounslow: [email protected] Tel: 020 8583 2745

SEND Local Offer
In response to concerns from parents and others that they find it hard to access information about what support is available, the Children and Families Act 2014 requires every local authority in England to publish a ‘Local Offer’ for children with special educational needs and disability (SEND).

The purpose of a Local Offer is to:

• provide clear information
• make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving children, young people and their parents as well as service providers in its development and review.

Please click on the your local borough to find out more about their Local Offer.

Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hounslow:

Family Information
The Family Information Services Directory is updated regularly to support families in their local borough.  Please click on your borough name to find services, organisations, travel assistance, activities for children, young people, and families as well as access to professionals.

Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hounslow,