Proposal 2: Strengthen peer and community support for adopted children and parents

Seeks to expand the model of peer support groups offered kinship families, although this is currently typically set up for carers rather than children and young people. The intention is an offer that helps more adopted children and families benefit from peer-led support groups, mentoring schemes, and community-based activities irrespective of where they live.

Potential benefits: 

Peer support is seen as valuable among adult adoptees, 87% of whom say it is, or would be an important source of support for them.

Among younger adoptees (aged 16-25), 59% say that spending time with other adoptees their own age is, or would be important to them (Adoption Barometer 2025). The All Party Parliamentary Group for Adoption and Permanence recent inquiry ‘Adoptee Voices’ highlighted a sense of isolation many adopted young people can feel and found that 33% of young adoptees surveyed aged 13 – 25 said they never talk about adoption with other young people.

Potential concerns: 

The proposal for local authorities or regional adoption agencies to meet the ongoing costs of maintaining peer support through “devolved funding arrangements” strongly suggests that funding currently ring-fenced for the ASGSF could be used to fund peer support instead (see proposal 7). While of vital importance, peer support for adoptive parents and adoptees does not remove the need for targeted therapeutic interventions which are currently funded via the ASGSF.

Without ringfenced funding and national standards, there is a risk that peer support programmes for young people will become a postcode lottery dependent on the Regional Adoption Agency ‘sponsoring’ the programme.

There is no proposal for the development of peer support for adult adoptees, despite evidence suggesting the overwhelming majority would find this valuable.

It is not clear what peer support programmes would be available for children and young people in kinship care.