If you are interested in adopting a child please complete the online enquiry form or contact Careline for an information pack.
We welcome enquiries from black and ethnic minorities as the children come from many different backgrounds, cultures and dual heritage.
People looking to adopt must be:
If you are a couple (whether married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting) adoption agencies prefer to see a relationship that has a significant history of at least two years or more. This gives agencies an indication of how, as a couple, you have coped with problems and how you support one another and make decisions.
We do not discriminate on the grounds of class, race, culture, sexual orientation or disability. We also welcome enquiries from single people wanting to adopt.
For more information about adoption and what is involved visit the British Association for Adoption and Fostering website.
We will contact you within five working days to discuss some basic criteria such as home, health and background information. We will then invite you to an information event to meet other people who have been through the process.
If you are in a position to adopt via our agency and still keen to proceed, a social worker will visit you at home to go through further details. We will then invite you to assessment days, where we can find out more about you and you will learn skills to help parent adopted children.
The social worker will visit you for a series of home visits, or home study where you will complete the assessment report. We will also contact your referees, and carry out police and probation checks.
We will present your assessment report to the adoption panel (19 out of 20 applications are approved by the panel). Link meetings will then be held to consider children awaiting adoptive placements to see if there is a child that could be matched to you.
Once approved, you will be introduced to the child and get to know each other over a period of time. The child will move in with you and you will have continued support from the social worker during the settling in period.
Your application is submitted to the court 10 weeks after the child is placed with you. If the adoption order is granted, this ends the child’s legal relationship with their birth family and makes you their legal parents.