Adoption Information For Birth Families

Knowing about you is important

Before an adoption can be arranged, the agency is required by law to ask for detailed information about you and your child. in order to obtain the clearest picture of your child and their birth family. This helps in making decisions about their future. You can therefore help your child by providing as much information as you can about yourself and your family and by understanding the importance of us knowing about your family's health.

We try to arrange for all birth parents to meet the prospective adopters of their child if you wish and it is felt to be appropriate. This is to help both sets of parents to have an image of, and a little more knowledge about each other. It will also be helpful for your child's adoptive parents to know as much as possible about your family background, as we know this helps adopted children to have a clear sense of their identity as they grow up. Brothers and sisters (including half-brothers and sisters) are also very important to adopted children. If brothers and sisters have to be placed separately, the adoptive familes will usually be asked to keep in touch with each other. Sometimes this is done through our "Letter Box Scheme". The "Letter Box" is explained later on this page. If you have any more children, or any other important changes occur in your life or your family, the Letter Box is a way of keeping your child's adoptive family informed.

Choosing a family for your child

The law requires that Adoption Agencies make very thorough enquiries about families wishing to adopt. All prospective adopters undergo lengthy training and assessment by an Adoption Agency and must be approved by an Adoption Panel before they can be considered for adoption.

They are asked to provide detailed information about themselves and their family background.

From having knowledge of prospective adopters'own family experiences and their skills and interests, the agency gets a picture of their family life and gains an understanding of what kind of upbringing they would offer a child. When your child is matched with an adoptive family, the family is chosen because it is thought they will be able to meet your child's needs, because your child's long-term welfare is the first consideration. A placement will not be made until it is believed that the right family is available. When a suitable family is found a recommendation is made by the Adoption Panel to the Adoption Agency, who makes the final decision.

There may be special considerations you would like to be included in choosing your child's family. You will always be invited to make your views and wishes known. It is not possible to promise to do as you wish, because your child's overall welfare must always be considered in choosing the adoptive family. However, your views will be taken into account wherever possible.

Older children will be given help to understand how adoption affects them and will be asked their views about the type of adoptive family they wish to live with.

Adoption by foster carers

Perhaps your child has been looked after by foster carers for a long time and they would like to adopt. In this case, the same thorough enquiries have to be made as for any other adopters. It is still very important to be sure that it would be best for your child to be adopted by that family, before adoption can be recommended and an adoption application made to the court.

Applying to adopt a child

When the Adoption Agency and the prospective adopters agree the time is right, the prospective adopters make an application to the courtadopt to the court of their choice and this application will be heard by a Judge.

Are you willing for your child to be adopted?

It may be that your child is the subject of a Care Order and an adoption plan was agreed upon by the court. Alternatively, it may be that you have asked this agency to arrange your child's adoption and an adoptive family has been sought at your request. In either circumstance, if you are willing for your child to be adopted, the court will ask a social worker from CAFCASS, an independent court agency, to meet with you and make sure that you understand what adoption involves. This person will need to be sure that you are willing to agree to your child's adoption, and you will be asked to sign a formal document giving your agreement, which will be given to the court. You can agree to the child being placed for adoption, and if you wish, you can give consent at this stage to the adoption order being made.

Are you unhappy at the prospect of your child being adopted?

If you are, it is important for you to have legal advice from a solicitor experienced in childcare matters as soon as possible. We will be able to give you a list of the solicitors in this area that specialise in childcare cases. You may be entitled to Legal Aid and your solicitor will be able to advise you about this.

One of two things must happen before a court can take away your rights as a parent and make an adoption order: either you must agree to this or the court must decide to dispense with the need for you to agree, and make a Placement Order. However it can only do so if one of the circumstances set out in the law applies in your case and the court will need to have satisfactory evidence of this. The court will send you a copy of the statement of evidence they are given, and you should discuss it with your solicitor as soon as you can.

In order to safeguard your child's interests the court will also ask a social worker independent of this agency (known as a Children's Guardian to visit you. The Guardian will want to know why you do not think it is a good idea for your child to be adopted. Your views will be reported to the court, because it is very important for them to know how you feel about your child's future. You will also have an opportunity to go to the court yourself if you wish, to explain why you are not willing to agree to your child's adoption. An Adoption Order cannot be made unless the court is sure it would be in your child's best interests to be adopted, and they have to take account of your views in deciding this.

What happens after adoption?

When your child moves to live with the adoptive family, the adoptive parents will already have received much information that will be important to your child growing up. Your child will also understand as fully as possible what is happening and will have their very own "Life Book" explaining their life in words, pictures and photos. Hopefully, this book will have been made with your help, as knowing about you is important. As the years go by, your child will be given more information according to their level of understanding.

A decision will be made about the type of contact you are to have with your child once the adoption placement has been made. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead believes that in most cases some form of continued contact with the birth family, and ongoing knowledge of them is important to a child growing up. There are two important factors in deciding what sort of contact is appropriate. Firstly any contact must be in the child's best interests and secondly any contact must not have a harmful effect on the adoptive placement.

There are two types of contact in adoption, direct and indirect.

Direct Contact

This is face to face contact between the birth family and the child with their new family. This is more unusual in adoption, but can take place in certain circumstances. Those parents or birth relatives who have direct contact with a child after adoption, must be in agreement with the plan for adoption and be able to support the adoptive placement.

Indirect Contact

This is contact by letter and is arranged via the Local Authority's Post Adoption Letterbox Service. All adopters chosen are willing to have indirect contact if it is appropriate. Letters are usually exchanged between the adoptive and birth family members once or twice a year. When an adoptive family has been found for your child an agreement will be drawn up outlining the Letterbox arangements with all the people involved. It should be pointed out that the agreements mentioned above are not legally binding and are not formally linked with any Court Order

It is important that adopted children are able to have further significant information about their birth families over the years. It is also important and reassuring to birth families to have news of their child from time to time.

The Post Adoption Letterbox Scheme

This is the means by which information will be exchanged between you and your child's adoptive family. The scheme is run by the Letter Box Co-ordinator at the Berkshire Adoption Advisory Service who will try to answer any queries you may have about the scheme or pass on to a social worker who will try to help you. If you have not made an agreement to either give or receive information at the time of your child's placement it may be possible to arrange one later on.

When your child becomes an adult

When children are adopted, the adopters get an adoption certificate from the Registrar General which shows the child's new name and shows the adopters as parents. This certificate takes the place of a birth certificate for all legal purposes. On reaching 18, your child will be legally entitled to get a copy of the original birth certificate. That birth certificate will show your child's original name, your name and the address you were living at when the birth was registered.

Adoption Support Services in this area

This agency has comprehensive adoption support services and is prepared to work in many ways to assist and support:

• Adopted children and their adoptive families
• Adopted adults
• Birth parents, grandparents and other relatives
• Siblings of adopted children

You can contact the Fostering, Adoption and Respite Service for more information on this and any other points on this page.

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