Adopting Together: supporting the adoption of children who wait the longest
Our research has strengthened adoption services across Wales by finding permanent homes for children who typically wait the longest for a family.
It is challenging to find permanent homes for children in care who are aged 4 years and over, especially when in sibling groups. Many of these children can have their adoption plans changed to long-term fostering and can be separated from their brothers and sisters.
Our research identified the factors that influence the success of early adoption placements leading to the first national adoption service for children who wait the longest called ‘Adopting Together’.
What is Adopting Together?
Adopting Together is a therapeutically informed service for children who wait the longest for an adoptive family. Its evolution was shaped through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Cardiff University, Welsh Government and St David’s Children Society - an adoption specialist dedicated to finding families for vulnerable children across Wales.
This partnership enabled St David’s Children’s Society to use our academic expertise, translating research findings from the Wales Adoption Cohort Study into a practical methodology to facilitate the adoption of children who wait the longest for a permanent family. This was achieved by working with other statutory and voluntary sector partners that make up the National Adoption Service in Wales and a therapeutic partner.
By gathering expertise from clinical psychologists and therapeutic social workers, Adopting Together has improved the lives of many children by delivering early intervention and increasing the number of placements of children who wait for adoption.
Adopting Together Key facts
- 25 children placed with their adoptive parents since 2018 (many of whom were on the cusp of having plans changed from adoption to long term fostering)
- Secured a financial return of £14.4M
- Now referenced as part of the standard protocols for all social work professionals in Wales.
“This highly innovative service means that children who typically wait longer than 9 months to be placed with adoptive families, often those children with complex health needs or who are part of larger sibling groups, are being therapeutically supported to make the transition to their new home.”
Underpinning research
Background
In 2019, the National Adoption Service in Wales evidenced a shortfall in adopter numbers by almost a third since 2014, with a consequent 64% increase in the number of children waiting for a family. There was also an increase in the number of ‘priority’ children waiting over 12 months to find a family.
These include:
- children aged 4 years and over
- sibling groups
- children with medical or additional needs.
In addition, a 2014 Department for Education report highlighted the effects for both children and parents when adoption placements break down. This often occurs when children display extraordinarily high levels of challenging behaviour (e.g. aggression; violence; self-harm) and parents receive inadequate professional support.
Subsequent research
Research led by Professor Katherine Shelton investigated the factors that characterise and underpin early placement success for families who adopted a Welsh child or sibling group..
They did this by:
- Pioneering the Wales Adoption Cohort Study, which followed a representative sample of families across the first 5 years after adopting a child or sibling group.
- Revealing that adoptee’s behaviour and mental health disorders remained consistently high over a 4-year period and that early adversity (e.g. neglect and/or maltreatment) was associated with increased problems.
- Warm adoptive parenting was associated with a marked reduction in children’s symptoms of mental health problems over time.
The findings highlighted the value of biographical information about the child’s life before and during care to support foster carer and professionals to manage a child’s transition to an adoptive family, including post adoption support.
Related links
Meet the team
Key contacts
Awards
Adopting Together has won numerous awards for its work in improving adoption services across Wales.
Partners
Publications
- Paine, A. L. et al. 2023. Adoptive parents’ finances and employment status: a 5-year longitudinal study european child & adolescent psychiatry. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 32 , pp.1305-1316. (10.1007/s00787-022-01946-3)
- Paine, A. L. et al. 2023. Facial emotion recognition in adopted children. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 32 , pp.87-99. (10.1007/s00787-021-01829-z)
- Anthony, R. et al. 2022. Patterns of adversity and post-traumatic stress among children adopted from care. Child Abuse and Neglect 130 (P2) 104795. (10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104795)
- Meakings, S. , Paine, A. L. and Shelton, K. H. 2021. Birth sibling relationships after adoption: the experience of contact with brothers and sisters living elsewhere. British Journal of Social Work 51 (7), pp.2478-2499. (10.1093/bjsw/bcaa053)
- Paine, A. L. et al. 2021. Charting the trajectories of adopted children’s emotional and behavioral problems: The impact of early adversity and post-adoptive parental warmth. Development and Psychopathology 33 (3), pp.922-936. (10.1017/S0954579420000231)
- Paine, A. L. et al. 2021. The neurocognitive profiles of children adopted from care and their emotional and behavioral problems at home and school. Child Neuropsychology 27 (1), pp.17-36. (10.1080/09297049.2020.1776241)
- Blackmore, J. et al. 2020. ‘The very first thing that connected us to him’: adopters’ experiences of sharing photographs, ‘talking’ albums and other materials with their children prior to meeting. Adoption and Fostering 44 (3), pp.225-241. (10.1177/0308575920945174)
- Shelton, K. , Merchant, C. and Lynch, J. 2020. The Adopting Together Service: How innovative collaboration is meeting the needs of children in Wales waiting the longest to find a family. Adoption and Fostering 44 (2), pp.128-141. (10.1177/0308575920920390)
- Anthony, R. E. , Paine, A. L. and Shelton, K. H. 2019. Depression and anxiety symptoms of british adoptive parents: a prospective four-wave longitudinal study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16 (24), pp.-. 5153. (10.3390/ijerph16245153)
- Anthony, R. E. , Paine, A. L. and Shelton, K. H. 2019. Adverse childhood experiences of children adopted from care: The importance of adoptive parental warmth for future child adjustment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16 (12) 2212. (10.3390/ijerph16122212)
- Doughty, J. , Meakings, S. and Shelton, K. 2019. Rights and relationships of children who are adopted from care. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 33 (1), pp.1-23. (10.1093/lawfam/eby016)
- Meakings, S. et al. 2018. The support needs and experiences of newly formed adoptive families: findings from the Wales Adoption Study. Adoption and Fostering 42 (1), pp.58-75. (10.1177/0308575917750824)
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