Fostering for Adoption is designed to give children of all ages a better chance in life. When a child is considered for this type of placement, there is a strong probability that they will not be returned to their birth family.
Should the child be unable to return to the care of their birth family, carers adopt the child and become the legal parents.
Fostering for Adoption placements enable children to be placed with their adopters earlier. They act as foster carers so that bonds and attachments can form. This is better for the child as it minimises potential moves with temporary foster care and provides stability as soon as possible.
"We met overseas and lived there for a few years where we worked before we decided to move to the UK to start our family. After discovering we were unable to conceive children naturally and via the IVF route we decided to look at adoption.
We initially tried an adoption service within our area however, due to us wanting a very young baby, we took their advice and applied with the adoption team at Lancashire County Council, now part of Adoption Lancashire and Blackpool.
As we have British/Mediterranean heritage the team happily looked at matches that may be dual heritage as well as British heritage.
The team explained the whole assessment process to us both and we were then introduced to our social worker. Our social was extremely helpful, and very easy going however always kept her professional persona. She worked closely with us when completing all the necessary forms and paperwork required and supported us in preparation for approval at panel.
The training days ran smoothly and we both found that we gained a lot of knowledge and understanding in our preparation for adopting a baby. We met a couple who we have stayed in contact with and now call our friends.
We were matched really quickly with a little boy on a foster to adopt basis in preparation to apply for full adoption. Our little boy was introduced to us at 16 weeks old by his initial foster carers and after an extremely smooth and short bridging period we brought our little boy home a few days later.
We are very lucky that within a year of our application we have our son who has settled in really well with us, in fact it feels like we have always had him and we are looking forward to him seeing him grow up into a beautiful little character that he is now.
The team are still in contact with us providing lots of post adoption support events and training courses if we require them."
You may also want to read about concurrency placements designed to give babies and children under two years old a better start in life.
If you're thinking about adoption, then you can find out more at one of our information events.
Book a place at an information event
If you'd prefer to speak to someone, then give us a call on 0300 123 6727 and we’ll be in touch with you as soon as possible.
