Glossary of Terms
Adoption is a legal procedure in which the parental responsibility for a child is transferred from their birth parent or other person with parental responsibility, to their adopter. When an adoption order is made, the child becomes a full member of their new family, usually taking the family surname. Adoption is a significant legal order and is not usually reversible.
Adoption Activity Days are events that give approved adopters, or prospective adopters at an advanced stage in their adoption assessment, the opportunity to meet a range of children who need adoptive families, in a safe, fun and supportive environment with themes and games and are able to play together as a way of making a personal and emotional connection. Prospective adopters and social workers can then work together to develop potential matches.
Adoption Agency Adoption agencies are organisations that work with prospective parents and children to assess, match, arrange and support adoptive placements. There are two kinds of adoption agency in England – local authority adoption agencies and independent/voluntary adoption agencies. The main difference between the two is that local authorities have children in their care, whereas independent/voluntary agencies do not. All adoption agencies are subject to strict regulatory control and regular Ofsted inspections.
Adoption assessment is the process by which adoption agencies assess potential parents in preparation for adoption. An adoption assessment should take no longer than six months.
Adoption Contact Register is held at the General Register Office. Adopted adults aged 18 or over and birth relatives can add their names to the Adoption Contact Register in order to find a birth relative or to say they don’t want to be contacted. This is not a tracing service. For a connection to be made between people, both must be on the Adoption Register.
Adoption Exchange Days are events that are organised where approved adopters who are not yet matched with a child or children, are invited to attend and have an opportunity to see profiles of children who are waiting for adoptive families nationally. Adoption agencies bring profiles and information about a range of children waiting for families, to a regional venue, giving adopters the opportunity to meet social workers from a number of different local authorities and to discuss the children they have waiting.
Adoption Match (formerly the Adoption Register for England) is the statutory matching service for England. Funded by the Department for Education, it is an online database containing details of children waiting to be adopted, and information about approved adopters. All children approved for adoption for 90 days or more, and for whom an active match with an approved adopter is not being pursued, must be referred to Adoption Match. Once the details of children and adopters are included in the database they will be included in detailed matching searches. Adoption Match staff work with social workers to ensure that children and families are given the best opportunity to be successfully matched.
Adoption order The adoption order is the final court order which gives approved adopters full and permanent parental responsibility for a child. It is issued by the Family Court. The adopter/s will then be provided with an adoption certificate bearing the child’s new surname (if changed) which becomes the child’s formal identifying document.
Adoption Panel Each adoption agency has an adoption panel, made up of social workers alongside independent members including those with personal experience of adoption. At the end of stage 2 of an adoption assessment, panel members are provided with a copy of the Prospective Adopter Report (PAR) and meet to consider the content and to make a recommendation about the prospective adopter’s suitability to become an adopter. Prospective adopters are invited to attend the panel if they wish, and will have seen their PAR in good time before the panel meeting. At the end of the meeting the panel will make a recommendation which will be passed to the adoption Agency Decision Maker for their decision, to approve or reject.
Adoption Register for England see Adoption Match
Adoption Support Fund (ASF) was launched by the Government in England in 2015 to provide financial support to access a range of therapies that are identified to help achieve improved emotional regulation and behaviour, improved engagement with learning, confidence and ability to enjoy positive family life and social relationships. The Fund is available for children living in England up to and including the age of 21 (or 25 with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or Education Health & Care Plan) who are adopted and were previously in local authority care in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, or left care under a Special Guardianship Order, or were adopted from overseas.
Assessment see Adoption assessment
Attachment is the emotional bond between two individuals, specifically in the case of adoption between the child and adoptive parent. Children who come into the care of local authorities may suffer from disrupted attachments due to their early life experiences, and may find it difficult to form secure attachments with adoptive parents, families and friends.
Birth parents are the child’s biological mother and father, who may or may not have been involved in the child’s early care. Birth families include by extension the grandparents, uncles, aunts and siblings who may or may not have played a part in the child’s life. Birth parents will always be the child’s biological parents. After an adoption order is made, birth parents are no longer the child’s legal parents.
CAMHS is the NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services specialising in behavioural, emotional and mental health difficulties in children and young people and can be accessed through referral by GP, social worker or school.
Care Orders under the Children Act 1989, section 31. If a local authority believes a child is at risk of or suffering from significant harm, it can apply to court for a care order. If the court decides that a child may be at risk if returned to his/her parents’ care they may make a care order. This means that the local authority shares parental responsibility with the child’s parents and the child becomes ‘looked after’ by the local authority and ‘in care’. The local authority can then make most of the important decisions for a child, such as where and with whom he/she will live.
Care proceedings are the legal processes whereby courts decide the permanence plan for children temporarily in care. Some may return to birth parents, or to birth relatives or remain in care and be fostered long-term, or be placed for adoption. Care proceedings my result in a care order, and a placement order if the court decides that adoption is the best plan for the child.
Celebration days take place after the court hearing that has granted an adoption order, and are a chance for adoptive families to celebrate the making of an adoption order. Adoptive families visit the court and meet the judge, who will give a certificate and usually invite families and friends to take photos.
Child Permanence Report (CPR) is an important document, and an essential tool to enable the adoption agency to plan for the future life of a child. It is completed by a child’s social worker and contains comprehensive information about the child’s family background, life experiences, health and the circumstances that led to the child being in care. CPRs are sent to prospective adopters who have expressed serious interest in a child during family finding and matching. It is a source of information to help prospective adopters decide whether to proceed, as it provides essential information about the child’s background and heritage which is used in the matching process. Adopted adults can also request a copy of their CPR, and it contains important information about their life history.
Concurrent Planning is for babies and young children under 2 in care who are likely to need adoption, but where attempts to reunite the child with their birth family are also being made. It is a form of fostering for adoption. See also Fostering for Adoption.
Contact between a child and their birth family (and others who have been important in their lives) must always be considered when a child is placed for adoption. The child’s needs are central to any plan which must also take account of the adopters’ views. Direct (face to face) contact between a child and their birth parent/s is rare. If contact is agreed, this is most likely to be indirect, confidential ‘letterbox’ contact, where an exchange of written information between the adoptive parent and birth family, handled through a central point (usually the adoption service acting as the letterbox exchange) to keep addresses and sensitive information confidential. Direct contact may take place between an adopted child and their siblings, who may be living in other adoptive or foster families. Contact arrangements are part of a process to help children develop their sense of identity, and make sense of their past.
CPR see Child Permanence Report
Early Permanence plan or Early Permanence Placement (EPP) refers to the situation where children may be placed at the earliest opportunity with adopters who are also approved as foster carers, who initially foster the child and may become their adopters once the court proceedings have been concluded. There are currently two early permanence plans – see Concurrent planning and see Fostering for adoption.
Family Finding is the process by which local authorities find the most suitable permanent family for a child. Adoption agencies will work with approved adopters to help make links with a child or children for whom they may be a good match. Profiles of children are made available to approved adopters for consideration.
Fast Track Assessment is an accelerated adoption assessment for those who have previously adopted a child, or who are currently approved and experienced foster carers.
Foster Carer see Fostering
Fostering places a child with an approved foster carer who can provide a stable and safe family environment and care for children who are unable to live at home. Fostering may be a permanent arrangement, or temporary until a permanence plan such as a return to birth family or adoption is made. Foster carers are paid allowances by the local authority and do not have legal or parental responsibility for the children in their care. Parental responsibility remains with the local authority and the child’s parent/s. When adoption is the approved plan for a child in care, foster carers have a vital role to play in preparing the child to meet his or her new family, and facilitating introductions and final placement.
Fostering for Adoption places a child with approved adopters who are also approved foster carers. A fostering for adoption placement will only be made where the local authority has clear evidence that there is little likelihood that the birth parents can resolve their problems or that other family members can care for the child. During the fostering stage of the placement the court will weigh up what is in the child’s best interests in the longer term. The carers need to be able to deal with the uncertainty of the period before the court’s final decision. If the court agrees that the child should be adopted and the adoption agency approves the ‘match’ between the carers and the child, then the placement becomes an adoption placement. Fostering for adoption, along with concurrent planning, is a form of early permanence, and is greatly in the child’s interests as it reduces the number of placements and promotes early attachment. See also Concurrent Planning
Home Study see Adoption assessment
Independent Adoption Agency see Adoption Agency
Information events are organised by adoption agencies to provide general information to members of the public interested in becoming adopters. Social workers generally give a presentation about the children that need families, the assessment process for prospective adopters, how children join families and the kind of support they may need after placement. Information events are a great way for prospective adopters to get a feel for how different agencies work and to hear from adopters who share their experiences. These meetings are very helpful in enabling people to decide whether adoption is right for them and help them choose an adoption agency.
Intercountry Adoption is the process of adopting a child from overseas. Prospective adopters have to be assessed and approved by an adoption agency in the UK that specifically carries out assessments for intercountry adoption. Once prospective adopters are approved for intercountry adoption there are different legal pathways, depending on the child’s country of origin. There are also financial considerations, as intercountry adoption assessments have to be paid for by the prospective adopters.
Introductions take place after the match between child and prospective adopters has been decided following the matching panel. Introductions are a carefully managed way of supporting the child’s move from their foster carers to adopters, agreed during a placement planning meeting. Typically, they take place at the foster carer’s home, and are supervised by the child’s social worker. During a period of one or two weeks, adopters will spend more and more time with the child until they are doing all the care, from getting the child up in the morning until they go to bed at night. After the agreed introductions period, the child will move to the adopters’ home, sometimes with support of the foster carer who may stay nearby for a few days until the child is settled.
Later-Life Letters are written by a child’s social worker, explaining why the child was taken into care and adopted. It is given to adopters on placement, and is designed to be read with the child at a time when he or she can better understand the actions and circumstances leading up to the adoption decision.
Life Appreciation Days may take place during matching, and give adopters a chance to meet key individuals such as social workers, foster carers, teachers and medical advisors who have been involved with the child during their time in the local authority’s care.
Life Story Books are often put together by a child’s social worker, but may also be prepared and developed by adopters, to record the child’s history up to and beyond the point of being placed for adoption. Usually they contain baby photos, pictures of birth parents, foster carers and any significant other people, with simple text helping children to understand their early history and the reasons why the child could not remain with their birth family.
Life Story Work is an ongoing process whereby parents help adopted children to feel more secure in their adoptive family. Adopted children are helped to understand their personal history and develop their sense of identity, including who they are, their biological parents and family, their early life experiences and why they were taken into care, and how they came to be adopted into their families. An understanding of the past can enable a child to feel more settled with their adoptive family and deepen bonds within the family.
Local Authority Adoption Agency see Adoption Agency
Looked After Children (LAC) are children in the care of a local authority. A child may be looked after by a local authority on a voluntary basis with the agreement of the child’s parent/s, or because the courts have issued a court order placing the child in the local authority’s care. Children adopted from care continue to be considered previously looked after children, particularly with respect to education funding
Mailbox/Letterbox see Contact
Matching is the process of identifying a suitable adoptive family for a specific child (see also family finding). It may involve the child’s local authority considering a number of potentially suitable adoptive families, in order to identify one that is the best match for the child or children. This one prospective adoptive family will then proceed to matching panel.
Matching Panel is the formal meeting that recommends a match between approved adopters and a specific child or children. The adoption panel of the child’s local authority will read through all the information in the adoption placement report, prepared by the prospective adopter’s agency to consider the match. Within this report is the Adoption Support Plan, which outlines support to be provided for the adopter and child. If the panel approves the match, the child’s local authority Agency Decision Maker then makes the final decision about whether the match should go ahead.
PAR see Prospective Adopter Report
Placement Order This court order may be made by a court at the end of care proceedings and gives permission for the local authority to place a child with prospective adopters. If a child, subject to a placement order, is placed with a prospective adopter, the local authority and the prospective adopter share parental responsibility for the child. A placement order ends when an adoption order is made.
Placement planning meeting (PPM) see Introductions
Post-Adoption Support refers to a range of services that can be accessed by adoptive parents. These include counselling, therapies, legal and medical advice and assessments. Some specified therapies can be paid for by the Adoption Support Fund, after an assessment is carried out by the local authority post adoption team.
Preparation Groups take place during the prospective adopter assessment, often starting in stage 1, and are designed to give prospective adopters the opportunity to understand and prepare for the realities of adoptive parenting. Prospective adopters meet as a group with others going through the same process. They learn together, and explore the benefits and challenges of adoption and key parenting skills needed to care for children who may have experienced neglect and abuse. The format varies but usually includes the valuable opportunity to meet with adoptive parents and hear their stories.
Prospective Adopter Report (PAR) is a report written by the prospective adopters’ social worker which summarises the information collected during the adoption assessment process. The PAR contains a lot of information and provides evidence about why the social worker considers the prospective adopter suitable to be approved as an adopter. Prospective adopters have the opportunity to read the report, to clarify any inaccuracies and add their own comments. The PAR will be presented to the Adoption Panel, and once adopters are approved, the PAR is also used to provide information to social workers who are seeking adoptive parents for children in care.
Pupil Premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England aimed at closing the educational gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. Pupil premium for children adopted from care recognises the extra challenges that these children may face in education. The pupil premium is used by the school to invest in measures to help the child achieve their educational potential. This does not necessarily mean that the full amount will be spent on each individual child, but rather to provide a range of education support measures that will benefit eligible children, ideally in discussion with parents. To qualify for this support, the adoptive parent(s) must inform the school that their child is adopted from care.
Special Guardianship is a court order that was introduced in 2005. It provides for parental responsibility to be shared between the child’s parents and an individual or individuals other than the birth parents. This could be a grandparent, close relative, foster carer or other connected person. The difference between Special Guardianship and adoption is that the birth parents remain the legal parents, and as such share parental responsibility for the child; however, their ability to exercise this responsibility is strictly limited and the Special Guardian is able to make nearly all the decisions in a child’s life without requiring the parent’s consent
Voluntary Adoption Agency see Adoption Agency