Why is family contact important in adoption?
“Contact, where safe, appropriate and properly managed, can be valuable for an adoptive child, their new family and their birth family, including siblings and other relatives.” Children and Families Act 2014: A failure of implementation. Dec 2022 Your child may have strong memories and feelings about their family and past, and your child may be curious about their birth family.
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Adoption support with a difference – Join the choir!
At the end of this summer, statistics were released about the number of black African and black Caribbean children waiting to be adopted. Evidence was shared that many have to wait longer than other children. The reason – is that there are not enough black families who are considering adoption. This news springboarded the choir to decide on a song…
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PAC-UK launch ‘BIG CONSULT 2022’ surveys for adopted people and birth families
PAC-UK has launched the first ’BIG CONSULT’ of adopted people and birth families. They want to hear about the experiences and views of adopted people and birth families on a range of adoption issues so that their voices can be heard by the wider adoption sector, policymakers, researchers, and by each other. They want to find out what is working and…
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Helping South London kinship families face rising cost of living in the holiday period
In the run-up to Christmas, we wanted to write to you to let you know what the Kinship Hub is doing to support Kinship Carers in these increasingly difficult financial times. The cornerstone of their work has always been helping make healthy food accessible for Kinship families, and so they are constantly looking for ways to increase the ability…
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You will be Found
“Have you ever felt like nobody was there? Have you ever felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere? Have you ever felt like you could disappear? Like you could fall, and no one would hear?” If you are ever feeling sad, isolated, anxious, overwhelmed, or lost, you are not alone. Adopt London is here to listen and…
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Spring Garden Fun
Lotty is a birth mum, an adoptive mum, a horticulturist and a landscape gardener. She shares a perfect craft activity to keep kids busy outside, collecting and creating. As you get out and about at this time of year you will see all the new leaves on the trees and the buds on the flowers, it’s the ideal time to…
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Greenwich Adoption Services join Adopt London South
Adopt London South, hosted by Southwark Council, delivers adoption services for the London boroughs of Croydon, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton, Wandsworth, and is now joined by the Royal Borough of Greenwich as of Friday 1 April 2022. Adopt London South brings all of South London’s adoption experts together to provide a range of services for everyone affected…
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An interview with Tor Docherty Chief Executive at New Family Social
Adopt London spoke with Tor Docherty, Chief Executive of New Family Social, on the eve of LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week, to talk about why more LGBTQ+ people need to rule themselves in, not out, as potential adopters. Tell me a little bit about yourself and your family? I have always worked in the voluntary and charity sector in…
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Barber shop
Adopting a child of a different ethnicity raises the question of hair care. My son was adopted from Ethiopia and has jet black tight curly hair. My hair is that of a Caucasian person, straightish and dirty-blond in colour. My son’s dense, thickly wound curls, are a magnet for attracting things: sand on a beach, grass from the park, and…
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Inspirational Birth Mum Poem
One birth Mum talks openly about the many ways that Family Rights Group has helped her, and others like her by encouraging and supporting them to find ways to tell their stories, and to use their voices to raise awareness. Angela Frazer Wicks has a ten-year-old daughter who has no local authority involvement whatsoever and shortly before Christmas 2020…
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Starting Secondary School
Nothing prepared me for how big an adjustment secondary school would be for my son. I am the sole parent to a wonderful child I adopted from Ethiopia aged 20 months. My son has a bright, big beautiful smile and just wants to have fun and play. He’s very tall and looks closer to 15 years of age, than the…
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Our Children – Writing the Poem
Adopt London have asked me how I wrote the poem for the animation ‘Our Children’. I’m never quite sure where my poems come from when I write them. Sometimes I sit down and they just fall out and other times it takes ages. I think this one came from all the young people in care that I have worked…
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Early Permanence was the best decision we ever made
Family has always been important to my husband and I, so it was natural for us to want to start our own. Unfortunately, this was not a smooth journey and, after many years of failed IVF treatments, we decided to look into adoption. Towards the end of our adoption assessment, our social worker talked to us about the idea of…
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Looking back on my journey to being a dad
Growing up I always knew I wanted to be a Dad and when I came out as a gay man that did not change. My husband and I initially looked at surrogacy, but it just didn’t feel right for us. Fast forward a few years and we began our adoption journey with our local authority at the time. When we…
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New Membership Offer from WAF
We Are Family (WAF) membership is now open to those at Stage One and beyond. WAF membership is FREE and membership is open to anyone who is going through or has been through the UK adoption process, or has adopted outside the UK and is now resident in the UK, or was previously resident in the UK and a validated…
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Poem by birth mother Margaret Yates.
This is a poem written by Margaret Yates who is a Birth Mother from South London who was reunited with her adopted son, David, in December 2017, after 47 years. You can read Margaret’s 1971 adoption story here. Adoption is a lifelong experience. Our Child, Our Child whom we held within us, close to our heart, for…
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Social Worker receives the New Family Social ‘2021 Making a Difference Social Worker’ Award.
UK’s LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers nominate Tesni Toulliou from Adopt London South for the ‘2021 Making a Difference Social Worker Award’. Following public nominations and a judging panel New Family Social, the UK’s charity for LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers received some 130 nominations and testimonials for agencies and social workers, from LGBTQ+ people at different stages of the…
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Tackling Fatherhood
I watch as all the other dads stand at the sidelines of mini-football cheering on their kids, shouting out advice – it’s all like some foreign Attenborough documentary. I know nothing about football, and nor does my male partner. But our 6-year-old son is obsessed; it’s all he talks about, giving us a play-by-play of the school lunchtime game with…
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Three Reasons To Garden With Your Children
Lotty is an adoptive mum, a birth mum, a horticulturist and a landscape gardener. She shares three reasons parents should get their kids outside and in the garden. #1 Putting a tiny seed into a pot, watering it and seeing it grow is a great project you can do with your little ones. Getting your hands into rich, warm soil is one…
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Fathers of boys
Eddie is 37, Jody is 39 they adopted siblings – two brothers Samuel is now aged 5, and Jermaine is 4. It was a tough slog and took almost three years. But they agree it has been amazing and the benefits far outweigh the negatives. How was parenting during the Covid lockdown? Our children always went to nursery or school…
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