As an adopted child and an adoptive parent, I feel passionately that lesbians, gay men and bisexuals have life experiences that make us particularly well-suited to parenting children from a wide range of backgrounds and circumstances.
I’m proud that we will be providing high quality information, signposting to additional resources and organisations and delivering the support that potential, and current, foster or adoptive parents need.
There are more than 100,000 children in care in the UK and it would be wonderful if our focus on LGB adoption and fostering could help to create more happy families.
This is just the start of our campaign. Please do follow our work to see where it leads.
Kate Barker, CEO
“When I was growing up, gay men were never considered parent material – or given societal permission to be dads. As boys, teenagers and young men, we were somehow wrong, different and unnatural – and we internalised that narrative. Being openly gay and a father seemed an impossibility …thankfully that has changed.”
Benjamin Chatterton
“The first few years were full of challenges and fostering allowed us to devote the time and attention the boys needed to let them flourish. Without question it has been the most enriching and rewarding experience of our life.”
Neale Hanvey
The adoption process
Contact your local authority or an adoption agency to express your interest.
They will carry out a series of initial checks to see whether you meet their basic criteria. They will contact your GP, carry out a criminal records (DBS) check and ask you to provide three references from people who know you well.
You will undergo a six to eight month assessment which is likely to involve meeting with other potential adopters, hearing about the challenges ahead from adoption professionals as well as having many in-depth discussions with your social worker, so that they can get to know you.
Remember that the majority of children who are adopted have had a difficult start in life. They may have been removed from homes where there is domestic or sexual abuse, severe neglect, or drug or alcohol abuse. Your meetings with a social worker are not tests designed to catch you out – they are to help you understand the challenges, to decide whether adoption is right for you and to be clear what kind of child you would be able to parent.
Between 3% and 9% of adoptions break down and your social worker is doing everything possible to ensure they make a good match. Once your social worker is satisfied, your request to be an approved adopter will be considered by a panel, comprising professionals and lay people, who will formally approve you.
Once you are approved, you and your social worker can begin to seek matches with a potential child.
The fostering process
Contact your local authority in the first instance to tell them you’re interested in fostering.
You will be visited by a social worker who will tell you more about what fostering involves and begin to assess your suitability to continue with the process.
You will receive a series of home visits to assess your suitability and to check your home. Together you will discuss which age, or ages, of children might prove a good match.
The social worker will carry out a series of initial checks to see whether you meet their basic criteria. These will be medical, financial and they will carry out a criminal records (DBS) check. You will also be asked to provide references.
The social worker will then prepare a comprehensive assessment report, which will be shared with a fostering panel made up of professionals who work with looked-after children and with experienced foster carers.
Once approved, the fostering service will work with you to find a suitable child or young person to place in your care and they will create a placement plan so that you can work together with the social worker to meet that child’s needs.
Remember that the children are likely to have complex needs and you will need to attend fostering training to develop some vital skills. (This training will be on-going throughout your time as a foster parent to ensure your knowledge is up-to-date and will be reviewed annually.)
You will receive on-going support and supervision from your fostering service throughout your fostering journey and you will receive financial support too.
Webinars
If Not Us, Then Who?
Kate Barker and Benjamin Chatterton discuss their decision to adopt and the challenges of the adoption process.
Real Lives
Everyone’s experience of adoption and fostering is unique. Take a look at at some of their stories here.
