Adoption agency celebrates first birthday

The partnership works across the region to find homes for children in care who require a permanent family through adoption and aims to offer a greater level of support to adopters and adopted children.

Shropshire Council, Staffordshire County Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Telford & Wrekin Council joined forces to create the Together4Children adoption agency on 28 September 2020.

By working together over the last year, the four councils have increased the opportunity to find the right homes for all children in the region who need an adoptive family.

Before this, each council only had access to a smaller number of potential adopters, making it harder to find the right family to meet a child’s individual needs. This meant children with specific needs, older children, and those children who needed to live with their brothers and sisters sometimes waited longer before a permanent home was found for them.

Bringing services together has also helped Together4Children offer a broader range of services that provide support to adopted children and their families in the region.

Nick Bardsley, Shropshire Council’s deputy Cabinet member for children and education, said: “The new partnership between the four councils has helped us match children with the right carers more quickly, which provides greater stability for children and offers more support for parents. A successful adoption is often the best long term option for some Looked-After Children – but getting it right isn’t easy. Our new partnership has had a great first year.

“The future is that much brighter for our Looked-After Children and carers.”

For more information about adoption in this region see www.together4children.co.uk

Adoption: Adoptive parents have full legal parental rights for the children they adopt. Contact with the children’s birth family is maintained with the support of adoption service.

Long-term fostering: Children remain in the care of the council with the foster carers providing care, often through to adulthood. The child maintains their relationship with their family with the support of carers and the council.