From fostering to adoption
Give young children a loving start
What is fostering for adoption or ‘early permanence’?
When vulnerable babies and toddlers are taken into care, their family circumstances can make it very likely they’ll need adopting.
To minimise the disruption of moving between families while the courts decide, young children may be placed with foster carers who could later adopt them. This is known as fostering for adoption, a type of adoption placement under the general term ‘early permanence’.
With training and support, temporary foster carers look after a child while legal decisions are made about their future.
If you’d like to start or grow your family by adopting a baby, fostering for adoption may be the first step in your journey.
Understand the risks of fostering for adoption
The main risk for you while fostering is that the courts decide it’s best that a child lives with their birth parents. This is unlikely but not impossible. You do need to be emotionally prepared to support settling a child back with their birth family.
Remember that your initial role as a carer is so valuable. You provide love and stability. You take the risk of disruption and loss from the child, and carry it on your adult shoulders instead. Whatever the outcome, this is an incredible, selfless gift to a child just beginning their life.
Many people are comforted by focusing on giving a child the best start they can in the time they’re together, however long that may be.
While you’re fostering a child, you will help them spend contact time with their parents every week. This can be stressful, as it’s understandably upsetting for birth parents to see their baby with another carer. With patience and understanding, you can reach common ground and even bond as you focus on the best future for their child.
The positives of fostering for adoption
If you go on to adopt your child, as the guardian of their life story you will already have lots of information about their birth parents and background.
Your child has already started living in their ‘forever family’ without delay, at an age when days and weeks really matter.
As a new parent, you get to bond earlier and experience all those special firsts, knowing that your love and support has influenced your child’s life from the start.
You’re also laying the foundations for better health and emotional wellbeing throughout your child’s life, by creating stability during their early years of development.
How fostering for adoption works
As a potential foster for adoption (FfA) carer, we will guide and support you every step of the way.
You’ll complete adoption training, including a tailored FfA course. You won’t need to complete separate foster carer training, but you will receive fostering allowances to cover expenses while you look after a child before adoption.
You’ll be supported throughout by adoption workers, who will stay with you if you move from fostering to adoption.
The legal process to decide a child’s future can take around 6 months. If the courts then decide that adoption is best, you can apply to adopt your child straight away.
‘Take each day as it comes’ – Julie’s journey from fostering to adoption
Our daughter L came to live with us when she was 3 days old. After the heartache of IVF, some friends were surprised we wanted to try foster for adoption. But it was so important for us to know our child’s birth parents. I wanted to be able to talk about them freely and easily with L.
Fostering wasn’t easy, but L’s birth mum and I worked hard to build a relationship, putting our girl’s needs first. I would go to our meetings with a little notebook filled with affirmations, to put me in a positive attitude and ready to listen.
I’m quite an emotional and sensitive person, so if I can do it anyone can! A big part of it is about changing your mindset to cope with uncertainty.
You can’t think too far ahead in this process, or you’ll worry too much. My one piece of advice is to take each day as it comes. Things change. Prepare for the worst, but stay positive.
When we did adopt L, her birth mum sent me a card saying how glad she was her baby was growing up with us. I’ll always treasure that trust she put in me.
Our ‘keeping in touch’ letters remain at the heart of that trust. We’ve swapped family stories and photos, so L has a photo of her birth mum up at home. She knows about her younger brothers who live with her birth mum - and they hear about her too. We’ll always be devoted to looking after our daughter’s life story, so that she understands where she comes from.
Ready for the next step? Start your adoption journey today and get in touch
Call us on 0300 300 8090
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