Adoption glossary

Adoption
Adoption is a legal procedure in which the parental responsibility for a child is transferred from their birth parent or other person with parental responsibility to their adopter. An adopted child loses all the legal ties with their original parents. When an adoption order is made in respect of a child, the child becomes a full member of their new family, usually takes the family name, and assumes the same rights and privileges as if they had been born to the adoptive family including the right of inheritance. Adoption is a significant legal order and is not usually reversible.

Adoption activity/fun days
Adoption activity or fun days are events to give approved adopters, or prospective adopters at an advanced stage of assessment, the opportunity to meet a range of children who need adoptive placements. Prospective adopters and social workers can then work together to develop potential matches. Adults and children meet in a fun environment with themes, games and dressing up, and can play together as a way of making a personal and emotional connection.

Adoption agency
Adoption agencies are organisations that work with prospective parents and children to assess, match, arrange and support adoptive families.

All adoption agencies in England are one of two types of organisation.

• Voluntary Adoption Agencies (VAA) – this is the model Yorkshire Adoption Agency works under, a charity that is not tied to a Local authority
• Regional adoption agency (RAA) – this is a group of local authorities that have grouped together for there adoption services.

Adoption assessment
Adoption assessment is the process by which adoption agencies assess potential parents in preparation for adoption. An adoption assessment should take no longer than six months, unless for exceptional reasons, and happens in two stages. See more about the process.

Adoption Contact Register
Adoption Contact Register  is run by the adoptions section of HM Passport Office. Adopted adults aged 18 or over and birth relatives can add themselves to the Adoption Contact Register at the General Register Office to:

• find a birth relative or an adopted person
• say you don’t want to be contacted

This is not a tracing service – for a connection to be made between people, you must both be on the Adoption Contact Register. There is a small charge for this.

Adoption order
The adoption order is the final court order which gives approved adopters full and permanent parental responsibility for a child. It is issued by the Family Court, on the application of the prospective adopter/s.

An order can be applied for a minimum of 10weeks into a placement and the forms are completed by the adopters, then Professionals will write the required court documents.

Once you have submitted your adoption order application, the birth parent/s have the opportunity to seek leave to oppose this.  The judge may give the birth parent/s more than one chance to contest.

Adoption certificate

Once the adoption order is granted, the court will write to you to and confirm key details. The court uses this information to inform the General Registry Office (GRO) who will create an adoption certificate.  There is now a small cost to obtain an adoption certificate.

Adoption approval panel
Each adoption agency has an adoption approval panel which you will be presented to at the end of stage two. Panel members are provided with a copy of the Prospective Adopters Report (PAR), and meet to consider the content and to make a recommendation about the prospective adopter’s suitability to become an adopter.  Prospective adopters are invited to attend the panel if they wish and will have seen their PAR in good time before the panel meeting. At the end of the meeting, the panel will make a recommendation which will be passed to the adoption Agency Decision Maker (ADM) for their decision, which should be made within 4 months of the start of stage two of the adoption assessment.

Adoption Support Fund (ASF)

The ASF is a Government fund to provide financial support for a range of therapies that are identified to help achieve improved emotional regulation and behaviour, improved engagement with learning, confidence and ability to enjoy positive family life and social relationships.

The fund is available for children living in England up to and including the age of 21 (or 25 with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or Education Health & Care Plan) who are adopted and were previously in local authority care in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, or left care under a Special Guardianship Order, or were adopted from overseas.

Adoption support (or post adoption support)
Adoption support is any support provision available to adoptive families and can take many forms. This range from newsletters, information and advice available on websites to specialist therapeutic support specific to your child’s and family’s needs.  See our support page.

Adoption support allowance

Some children, who might otherwise not be adopted due to the extra costs associated with looking after them, might receive an ongoing allowance to support adoptive parents with meeting their needs. The amount payable is determined and paid by the local authority looking after the child before adoption (the placing authority), and is means-tested.

Attachment
Attachment is the emotional bond between two individuals, specifically in the case of adoption between the child and parent. Children who come into the care of local authorities may suffer from disrupted attachment due to their early life experiences, and may find it difficult to form secure attachments with parents, families and friends.

Birth parents/family
Birth parents are the child’s biological mother and father who may or may not have been involved in the child’s early care. Birth families include, by extension, the grandparents, uncles, aunts and siblings who may or may not have played a part in the child’s life.

Bump into

When you are matched with a child, you may have a ‘bump into’.  This is often where you will get to see/meet a child prior to being presented to matching panel.

CAMHS
CAMHS is the NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services specialising in behavioural, emotional and mental health difficulties in children and young people and can be accessed through referral by GP, social worker or school.

Care orders
Care orders under the Children Act 1989, section 31, if a local authority believes a child is at risk of or suffering from significant harm it can apply to court for a care order. If the court decides that a child may be at risk if returned to his/her parents’ care, they may make a care order. This means that the local authority shares parental responsibility with the child’s parents and the child becomes looked after by the local authority and ‘in care’. The local authority can then make most of the important decisions for a child, such as where and with whom they will live.

Care proceedings
Care proceedings are the legal processes whereby courts decide the permanence plan for children temporarily in care. Care proceedings may result in a care order or in relation to adoption, may result in a placement order as a precursor to the child being placed for adoption.

Celebration days/hearing
Celebration days take place after the court hearing that has granted an adoption order and are a chance for adoptive families to celebrate the making of an adoption order. Adoptive families visit the court and meet the judge, who will give a certificate and usually invite families and friends to take photos. Celebration days have no legal standing and are not part of the adoption process.

Child Permanence Report (CPR)
Child Permanence Report (CPR) is an important document and an essential tool in enabling the adoption agency to plan for the future life of a child.

It is completed by a child’s social worker and contains comprehensive information about the child’s family, life story and circumstances. CPRs are sent to prospective adopters who have expressed serious interest in a child during family finding and matching as a source of information to help them decide whether to proceed, and they provide essential information about the child’s background and heritage which is used in the matching process.

Adopted adults can also request a copy of their CPR as it contains important information about their life history.

Concurrent planning
It is a form of fostering for adoption.

Maintaining relationships (contact)
Contact between a child and their birth family (and others who have been important in their lives) must always be considered when a child is placed for adoption. The child’s needs are central to any plan which must also take account of the adopters’ views.

Direct (face to face) contact between a child and their birth parent/s is rare. If contact is agreed, this is most likely to be indirect, confidential ‘Letterbox’ contact where an exchange of written information between the adoptive parent and birth family, perhaps once a year, is handled through a central point (usually the adoption service acting as the letterbox exchange) to keep addresses and sensitive information confidential.

Direct contact may take place between an adopted child and their siblings who may be living in other adoptive or foster families. Contact arrangements, along with life story work and other ways of providing information, are part of a process to help children develop their sense of identity, make sense of their past and integrate it with their present.

Early Permanence or Early Permanence Plan (EPP)
Early Permanence or Early Permanence Plan (EPP) refers to the situation where children may be placed in their permanent home at the earliest opportunity by being placed with adopters who are also approved as foster carers, who initially foster the child and may become their adopters once the court proceedings have been concluded.

Please see our EPP page for more details

Family finding
Family finding is the process by which adoption agencies and local authorities find the most suitable permanent family for a child. Adoption agencies will work with approved adopters to help make links with a child or children for whom they may be a good match. Profiles of children are made available to approved adopters either by their own adoption agency or via Link Maker and other family finding and matching agencies.

FASD – Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is a term used to describe the permanent impacts on the brain and body of individuals prenatally exposed to alcohol during pregnancy resulting in a spectrum of physical, emotional, behavioural and neurological characteristics.  Individuals with FASD may need support with motor skills, physical health, learning, memory, attention, emotional regulation, and social skills.  They also have a unique set of strengths and many are showing talents, that when nurtured and supported, demonstrates their unlimited potential in those areas.

Fast track assessment or second time adopter assessments
Fast track assessment is an accelerated adoption assessment which can be used for those who have previously adopted a child.

Fostering
Fostering places a child with an approved foster carer who can provide a stable and safe family environment and care for children who are unable to live at home.

Fostering for adoption
Please see Early Permanence Plans (EPP) or visit our EPP page.

Information sessions
Information sessions are organised by adoption agencies to provide general information to members of the public interested becoming adopters. Information events are a great way for prospective adopters to get a feel for how different agencies work and to hear from adopters who often share their experiences at these events and are very helpful in enabling people to decide whether adoption is right for them and in choosing an adoption agency. Information sessions can also be shared via a video link. Yorkshire Adoption Agency’s information sessions are called ChatAdopt.

Inter CountryAdoption (ICA)
Inter Country Adoption is the process of adopting a child from overseas. Prospective adopters have to be assessed and approved by an adoption agency in the UK that specifically carries out overseas assessment, and after that there are different legal pathways depending on the child’s country of origin. There are financial considerations, as ICA assessments have to be paid for by the prospective adopters.

Please see our ICA page for more details.

Introductions
Introductions take place after the match between child and prospective adopters has been decided after matching panel. They are a carefully managed way of supporting the child’s move from foster carers to adopters, agreed during a placement planning meeting.

Typically, they initially take place at the foster carer’s home, and adopters will spend more and more time with the child until they are doing all the care from getting up in the morning until going to bed at night. After the agreed introductions period, the child will be move to the adopters’ home, sometimes with support of the foster carer who may stay nearby for a few days until the child is settled. The length of the introductions will be based on the needs of the child and take into account the circumstances of the foster family and adoptive family.

Later-life letters
Later-life letters are written by a child’s social worker, explaining why the child was taken into care and adopted. It is given to adopters on placement and is designed to be read by the child at a time when he or she can better understand the actions and circumstances leading up to the decision.

Local authorities

An area, often a council, who is responsible for providing a range of services.

Letterbox

Letterbox contact is where the adoptive and birth family exchange a letter, email or card, and sometimes photographs via the adoption agency. It provides a confidential, indirect way for adopted children to receive information about their birth family and for birth relatives to receive up-to-date information about the adopted child.

Life appreciation days
Life appreciation days take place during the matching process, and give adopters a chance to meet key individuals such as social workers, foster carers, teachers and medical advisors who have been involved in the child’s life so far. It is a chance to hear about the child from those who know them best and ask questions which will help the child understand their history and identity in the future.

Life story books
Life story books are often put together by a child’s social worker but may also be prepared and developed by adopters to record the child’s history up to and beyond the point of being placed for adoption. Usually, they contain baby photos, pictures of birth parents, foster carers and any significant other people, with simple text helping children to understand their early history.

Life story work
Life story work is an ongoing process whereby parents help adopted children to understand their personal history and develop their sense of identity, including who they are, their biological parents and family, their early life experiences and why they were taken into care, and how they came to be adopted into their families.

Link Maker
Link Maker is a national website which supports the matching process. It holds a database of children who are awaiting adoption and a database of approved adopters. The website enables adopters to view the profiles of children across the country that are in need of being adopted and place requests for further information. Not all children awaiting adoption will automatically be placed on Link Maker.

Looked after children 
Looked after children are children in care, however a looked after child may be either accommodated, at their parent/s request or due to their absence, or be subject to a care order issued by a family court. Children adopted from care continue to be considered previously looked after children, particularly with respect to education funding.

Matching
Matching is the process of identifying a suitable adoptive family for a specific child (see also family finding). It may involve the child’s local authority considering a number of potentially suitable adoptive families, in order to identify one that is the best match for the child or children. This one prospective adoptive family will then proceed to matching panel.

Please see our adoption process page for more information.

Matching panel
Matching panel is the formal meeting that recommends a match between approved adopters and a specific child or children. The adoption panel of the child’s local authority will read through all the information in the adoption placement report, prepared by the prospective adopter’s agency to consider the match. Within this report is the adoption support plan which outlines support to be provided for the adopter and child. If the panel approves the match, the child’s local authority Agency Decision Maker then makes the final decision about whether the match should go ahead.

Placement order
Placement order this court order may be made at by a court at the end of care proceedings and gives authority a child to be placed with prospective adopters. If a child subject to a placement order is placed with a prospective adopter, at this stage the local authority and the prospective adoptive parents share parental responsibility for the child. A placement order will last until an adoption order is made, or until a court decides to end the placement order.

Prospective Adopter Report (PAR)
A Prospective Adopter Report (PAR) is written by the prospective adopters’ social worker, summarising the information collected during the adoption assessment process. The PAR is presented to the adoption panel as the basis for discussion, and is sent to social workers seeking adoptive parents for children in care. Prospective adopters have the opportunity to read the report, to clarify any inaccuracies and add their own comments. The PAR should evidence the assessing agency’s belief that its subjects would make good adoptive parents.

Pupil Premium
Pupil Premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England aimed at closing the educational gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

The Virtual School (and the Virtual School Head)
A Virtual School is not a teaching institution but a way of bringing together the information about children and young people who are cared for by a local authority as if they were in a single school. That way, their progress can be closely tracked and supported, and interventions can be targeted in a more strategic way.

The school has a Headteacher, also known as the Virtual School Head – a statutory post within every local authority – who, as a senior manager within the authority can support and challenge local authority departments, schools and other agencies to help them do better.

Virtual School Heads (VSHs) are in charge of promoting the educational achievement of all the children looked after by the local authority they work for.

VSHs are responsible for managing pupil premium funding for the children they look after and for allocating it to schools and alternative provision (AP) settings (these are places that provide education for children who can’t go to a mainstream school).

VSHs are also responsible for managing the early years pupil premium (EYPP). They’re in charge of giving the premium to the early years providers that educate looked-after children (children in local-authority care) who are taking up the free early education entitlement for 3- or 4-year-olds.