An important new Bill is currently being debated by MPs in parliament. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill sets out how the Labour Party aims to remove barriers to opportunity in schools and improve the education system to make it more consistent and safer for every child. It also seeks to strengthen regulation in children’s social care, improving quality of care and keeping children rooted in their families and local communities where possible. Adoption UK has welcomed these important proposals.   As it stands, the Bill wholly excludes reference to adopted people. This is ..read more

The moment our twins arrived into our home I began preparing a note: a sort of proof to be shown to anyone daring to question the validity of our family. My background is mainly white European, my wife is Australian and her background is Filipino. Our children are Black British. I feared that we would be stopped by random strangers, and I was anxious about possible confrontational encounters. Time passed, two and a half years now, and the confrontational encounters never came. We have had plenty of inappropriate and intrusive encounters. Twins attract comments from people, ask any twin parent ..read more

I adopted over 9 years ago. The preparation training was very different to how it is now, and I don’t remember anyone talking about post adoption depression. They may have spoken about it and at the time I may have thought it would never happen to me…but it did. I remember the start of it - day 3 of introductions I could not stop crying. Of course, I did not cry in front of my son but from the moment I woke up that day, I felt different. I could not explain how I felt, did not really know what I felt but knew it was different and I knew I was crying but not really understanding why. I had ever ..read more

In 2019 Adoption UK in Scotland and a group of interested researchers, policy makers and experts by experience came together. They shared their knowledge, a drive to push FASD up the health agenda and a desire to develop support for those with FASD and their families. Some money was provided by the Scottish government and the FASD Hub Scotland was born.  To celebrate this milestone, the FASD Hub Scotland hosted a special birthday conference in Edinburgh on 6 November. It was an opportunity to look back at the progress made over that time and ahead at the work still to do.  Minister f ..read more

by Clare Tyler Communities and Support Manager When adopters talk about self care, most think it is not important, not right we should put ourselves first or it involves eating cake. Other say they have no time, don’t know what to do for self care or just have no enthusiasm for self care. Now, if I am totally honest, what I would most like to be doing in the world is eating cake and calling it self care.I really need no excuse to turn to cake or chocolate! I knew that I needed to look past the cake for my self care during COVID 19. If I was going to be working from home, social distancing ..read more

In 2023, as media headlines exploded with headlines about an ‘attendance crisis’ in the UK’s schools, I began to gather research by Adoption UK and other organisations as well as data collected by the Department for Education in England (this data is not available in other nations) to try to uncover how previously looked after children fitted in to this emerging story. I reached out to those with lived experience and was immediately inundated with heartbreaking stories. Stories of children who had been unable to attend school for months and even years; parents who had unwillingly decided to ho ..read more

“Breaking the pernicious link between background and success will be a defining mission for Labour.” The Labour Party Manifesto. The government’s Opportunity Mission is ambitious, encompassing promising reforms to education and early years support, investment in the creative sector and housing, and reforms in employment and benefits. In all of this, there is a strong focus on economic disadvantage. This is vital. But it is not the only barrier. Creating opportunity for every child means tackling other forms of disadvantage as well, such as disability, and care experience. To be care experience ..read more

Cara was adopted by Chris and Joe when she was two years old. They write about Cara’s speech and language needs, how they taught Cara to sign and what parenting life is like for the two adoptive dads, both of whom are profoundly deaf.  When Cara came to live with us, except for a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, she couldn’t talk. She was extremely frustrated by not being able to get her point across and as a result screeched a lot.  To try and build her communication skills and improve her confidence to communicate, we gradually taught her Makaton sign language. One day, when catching a b ..read more

The tradition me and my family always do at the start of each academic year is to take a photograph of me outside our front door. However, this year was different. I was in my high school uniform ready to start with my friends. At this time, I was so nervous, and I was worrying about things like how big the school was going to be and would I make any new friends.   My primary school was so supportive with my transition to high school. They provided groups for me and helped me with things like how to handle your emotions and what to do in a situation between classes. They gave some of us b ..read more

Amid growing concern about rising levels of young people who are not in education, employment or training, the BBC recently published an article featuring Kian, a young boy whose story illustrates the challenges faced by many thousands of young people.  Kian struggled in school. He was often absent, sometimes attending only once or twice each month. His future looked bleak, but thankfully he was put in touch with a local charity that supports young people at risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training). Kian began attending school regularly and, this year, got the ..read more