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Lifelong adoption support

VAAs have a long history of providing lifelong support to their families, and currently deliver a variety of high-quality support services across the country, from parenting courses and contact facilitation to therapeutic interventions and support to adult adoptees accessing their records.

Whilst a significant proportion of this work is funded through VAA’s fundraising efforts, many families rely on accessing the publicly funded Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund which currently runs until the end of March 2025. More information and guidance for professionals about the process of working with the relevant local authority or regional adoption agency to apply to the fund can be found here.

CVAA is also working on a number of projects focused on adoption support. This includes supporting our members to collaborate more effectively on providing adoption support services and the development of a new pilot focused on providing early multidisciplinary support packages to children with complex needs. If you are interested in finding out more about CVAA’s work on adoption support, please contact [email protected].

Professionals may also be interested in reading Coram Baaf’s Blueprint for an adoption support service which sets out 17 requirements of a high-quality adoption support system.

Adoption England are also currently running a number of programmes and workstreams focused on adoption support. This includes piloting new adoption support plans and developing a ‘Purple Book’ which is a tool for prospective adopters to record important information and resources. More information about this is available here.

Another key part of support is working with children and their families to maintain the relationships which are important to them. Whilst practice in this areas has improved, there is still a long way to go and CVAA has worked with its members to lay out proposals for a new hub and  service called My People to better support adopted children maintain meaningful relationships.

A number of VAAs also play a key role in providing adoptees with support in accessing their records.  An overview of key legislation and regulations governing this area, as well as an overview of adoptees’ rights has been created by PAC-UK here.  Government guidance is available here.

CVAA has also developed guidance documents for VAAs and statutory agencies in England and Wales to support adults adopted on or after 30 December 2005 to access their records. These can be found here.

Below is also a list of resources that you may find helpful: