Meet the Team

Read profiles of key members of the Adoption UK team

Discrimination at work

Adoption UK warns that adoptive parents continue to be discriminated against in the workplace.

Special Feature

Our weekly feature covers a huge range of adoption related topics. Take a look at the latest one now.

Campaigning

Find out about our latest lobbying and campaigning work

Current Press Releases

Download the latest press releases on a range of issues relating to adoption, and find media statements covering overseas adoption and eligibility to adopt.

Latest press release:

02.11.11 - Adoption UK Statement on giving adopted children priority in school admissions 

31.10.11 - Adoption UK statement on Prime Minister’s National Adoption Week campaign

28.10.11 - Charity highlights 40th anniversary demands during National Adoption Week

26.10.11 - Children's Commissioner speaks out for adoptive families in Wales

26.10.11 - Tom Elliot MLA speaks out for adoptive families N.I

29.09.11 - Adoption UK Statement on 2011 Adoption Figures

30.08.11 - Adoption UK response to The Times article: Hostility to adoption is ‘letting children down’

05.07.11 - Adoption UK response to the Narey report on Adoption

29.06.11 - Call to end discrimination in adoption entitlement reaches Parliament

                   Accompanying document:

                   Letter Template - Gaining support for the Private Members Bill on Adoption Pay and Leave

08.06.11 - Adoption UK says Ofsted "could do better"

12.04.11 - Adoption UK Letter to the editors of national newspapers re. " A Home for Maisie"

                   Accompanying reports:

                   PACT Domestic Adoption & Fostering SROI Evaluation

                   Coram Harrow Report - April 2011

08.04.11 - A Home for Maisie: Joint Media Statement from the adoption sector

22.02.11 - Adoption UK Statement on relaunch of national adoption guidelines

17.02.11 - Adoption UK’s response to Welsh Assembly Government’s adoption announcement

28.01.11 - Adoption UK response to Barnardo's "There is no room for prejudice ... " story

19.01.11 - Adoption agencies failing children in care, warns leading charity

                    Accompanying report:

                   Waiting to be parents - adopters' experiences of being recruited - Jan 2011

Press release archive

Statements

Overseas adoption

Intercountry adoption is a complex area of law, governed by international conventions and domestic and international law. Someone from the UK who is interested in adopting from overseas has to be prepared, assessed and approved as an adopter in this country, as well as meeting the adoption law requirements of the country from which they want to adopt.

"People choose to adopt from overseas for many reasons. They may have a link or previous involvement with, or interest in, a particular country, such as being born there, or lived or worked there, or have family from there, and so on. For some, there may also be the belief that adopting from overseas may be easier, that they will be able to avoid being placed with older, more traumatised children from the UK care system, and/or that they will have more chance of being able to adopt a baby - which is often the starting point for many people when they first think about adoption, as many adopters come from a background of infertility. It is true that overseas adopters will have a better chance of adopting a baby by going overseas, but this does not mean that their adoption will necessarily be easier.

“Intercountry adoption is an involved and costly process. Furthermore, children adopted from overseas will share many of the issues of children placed domestically. Both will have had to deal with the traumatising effect of separation from their birth parents, and any associated trauma they may have experienced, which could be due to early abuse/neglect, further changes of carers, all of which will be down to individual circumstances. For overseas adopted children, there may also be questions around the harm caused by being institutionalised in a care home or orphanage.

“More fundamentally, however, children adopted from overseas, and their new parents, will have further challenges to face in that the children will not only have been removed from their birth family, but also from their race, language, culture and nationality. Those are huge issues for a child coming to a new country and a new family, and adoptive families need to be supported with dealing with them."

Eligibility for adoption

“The child is the most important thing when considering who can and can’t adopt. In most cases, the child has spent most of their life in the care system, so first they have been taken from their family for a reason, then they’ve spent years moving from one foster home to another.

In every case, the priority for the local authority and adoption agency is making sure that the child’s adopted family is able to provide them with the stability their lives have been lacking. So the two most important things that adoption agencies look for are health and longevity. These children have dealt with more than enough loss and bereavement in their lives already. Now they need someone who will always be there for them, as much as we can assess that, of course. The parents must have the maximum chances of being around for as long as the child needs them."