Adoption UK provides the secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Adoption and Permanence, alongside Home for Good. Last week we were in Parliament to meet with MPs and Peers, sector leaders and members of the adoption community to discuss the findings of the recent survey of self-employed adopters.

Self-employed adopters are not eligible for statutory adoption pay (SAP) because they are not employees, but neither are they able to claim the equivalent to the statutory maternity allowance (SMA) that self-employed birth parents can.

The results of this survey indicate that a lack of financial support for self-employed adopters during the early months of adoption is causing added financial pressure. This impacts the amount of time they are able to take off work, and thus the amount of time spent forming a bond with their child in those crucial early months of adoption.

Many adopters and prospective adopters report that this lack of financial support is playing a key role in their decision to not adopt again in future. Worryingly, some adopters have reported the impact is so severe that it is preventing them from being able to adopt their child’s sibling.

90% of adopters reported not being advised by their social workers to apply for a discretionary payment from their local authority, despite this being suggested in statutory guidance. 

Full press release

Write up of the survey