The adoption service is an integrated component of Children’s Services. Our aim is to make sure that the welfare and safety of children are at the centre of the adoption process.
Our adoption service offers support to social workers looking for the right families for children who have been relinquished for adoption or who can not be safely returned to the care of their parents or relatives. We also recruit, train, assess and provide support to prospective adoptive parents.
Every year, we place between 20 and 30 children for adoption. To meet this demand, we recruit up to 50 new adoptive families annually. Many of them will adopt children placed by other local authorities too – in fact, the County has a scheme to promote and support concurrent planning in appropriate cases. It’s all carried out with the view of disrupting the children as little as possible.
Managed by experienced teams based in Barnstaple, Exeter and Totnes, our adoption process is thorough and well supported. Looking after prospective adopters, the Recruitment & Assessment Team review the suitability of each family, decide which child is best matched to them and provide training to help them prepare for the placement. The support the family receives will not end there though. The team will extend their services from the initial match right the way through to an adoption order being granted.
Once the adoptions have been finalised, the Adoption Support Team work with other agencies to develop a range of services, activities and specialist therapeutic programmes – each one providing high-level support to families bringing up adopted children, whatever their age. Some team members specialise in working with adopted adults and their relatives as well as children, providing an all-round programme that offers lifetime support.