Adoption support for birth families

If your child is being considered for adoption, Adopt London can help you understand your options, rights and their service can help, either before or after your child is born.

If your local authority has taken your child and is placing them up for adoption against your will and you want to stop the adoption or need help keeping your child, you should speak with a legal adviser to make sure your objections are recorded and heard before a judge.

If you want help placing your child for adoption, you can meet with a social worker who will be able to answer your questions on the process for adoption and give you advice. They can also suggest ways to help you if you want to try and raise your child. For single parents, there are groups who can help.

Adopt London supports birth and adoptive parents equally. Any enquiries are confidential and non-judgmental. You can ask for a separate social worker from your child to make sure you get all the support you need and all relevant reports on your child should be shared with you.

If you decide adoption is how you wish to proceed you will be asked a number of personal questions about your life, family and the child’s father. It is important for adopted children to know as much about their birth family as possible. This helps when telling the new family about the child and their background. Social workers will also ask what type of family you would like your child to grow up in, for example, culturally or religiously.

Once the decision is made for adoption, you and your child will experience many different feelings, depending on the age of the child. At this stage, you are still completely free to change your mind and raise your child yourself.

Getting in touch with adopted family members

If you are a relative who has been affected by adoption, Adopt London can offer advice and help to make contact with an adopted relative. This could include advice on registering your details on the contact register or searching public records.

If your relative is over 18, the agency may consider writing to the adoptive parents on your behalf. They will also offer birth relatives seeking information or wishing to trace an adopted child a counselling service to prepare for the information you may receive, or for actually meeting your relative. The support can extend to after you have had a reunion too.