Under UK law :-
- You must be over the age of 21. There is no upper age limit for prospective adopters; however, age will be a consideration for Local Authorities in the UK and authorities overseas who are choosing adoptive parents for children in their care.
- You may be single, a married couple or a couple who has or does not have a Civil Partnership. We welcome enquiries from Prospective Adopters regardless of age, race, religion, culture, sexuality or disability.
- Prospective Adopters need to be in good health so that it can be reasonably predicted that you will be able to parent your adopted child until he/she can live independently.
- You must not have been convicted/cautioned of an offence against a child. Other serious offences may prevent you from adopting a child.
- You may or may not have birth children. If you have recently had infertility treatment, we need to be confident that you have reached the stage where you will be able to parent an unrelated child.
- If you wish to parent a child from overseas you must meet the criteria for adoption in the country from which you hope to adopt. Some countries have restrictions, for example, on age, finances, health, offences or applicants having birth children. It is therefore, important that if you wish to adopt a child from a specific country you need to check your eligibility with us BEFORE taking any action to progress an application to adopt. We need to advise any prospective Inter Country Adopter that we are not and neither are the authorities in the UK able to influence the eligibility criteria for adoption in overseas countries.
- If you wish to adopt a child from overseas you MUST follow the procedures for adoption in the UK. It is an offence not to do so and may result in imprisonment and/or a fine. Adopting a child from overseas without following the recognised UK procedures may result in your child not being allowed to enter the UK about which we can exert no pressure on the authorities.
