Who can apply?

Only an Adoption Agency can place a child with strangers for adoption. For anyone other than an adoption agency to be involved in such an arrangement is a criminal offence.

Where can I find an Adoption Agency?

Your local County, City or Metropolitan Borough Council will have an Adoption Service and there are many other Government approved organisations which are Adoption Agencies. They can only place a child for adoption with an approved adopter or adoptive couple.

Who can become an Approved Adopter?

A single person or a couple can become an approved adopter. If a couple wish to adopt it is no longer a requirement that they be married but they will have to establish that they have a relationship which is likely to be long-lasting. They can be of either, or the same sex, but they cannot be close relatives of each other, (eg. mother, father, brother, sister, grandparent, uncle or aunt of the other).

How can I become an Approved Adopter?

While we might be able to give you very general advice about becoming an approved adopter - why not have a preliminary discussion with your local authority or one of the other approved Adoption Agencies?

Becoming an approved adopter involves careful checks into your background, a period of training and an assessment of your suitability.

Once approved there is no guarantee that a child will be found for you. Not surprisingly there is far more competition for healthy babies than for children who are older, or of different abilities, or for sibling groups. For some of these children adoptive families are never found.

When an agency has a child to place it will generally start by looking within the adopters it has approved itself to see if there are couples or single adopters who will be right for that particular child. A process of "matching" is gone through to make sure that the adopter(s) who best meet the child's needs are chosen. Great care and a lot of work goes into this process.

If a really good "match" for the child cannot be found, the agency will almost always go outside its own list of approved adopters and will canvass groups of other agencies to secure the best possible placement.