Fostering for adoption carers are approved adopters who have the skills and emotional resilience to offer a child a loving home, while living with the uncertainty that the child may return to their birth family. This means fostering for adoption is not suitable for all prospective adopters. During a prospective adopter's assessment, a social worker will discuss fostering for adoption, and will record their recommendations about suitability in a report.
There is no generic assessment for fostering for adoption carers. Applicants are approved following an assessment of their capacity to meet the needs of an individual child. If you are an approved adopter, you will receive information about children who need fostering before adoption. Your social worker will support you to decide if you can meet a child’s needs.
The child’s social worker will then complete an assessment with you, which is provided to the fostering decision maker for their recommendation. If the decision maker agrees that you can meet the child's needs, you would then become a temporary foster carer for the child.
If the court decides that the child should be adopted, your adoption social worker, in agreement with the child’s social worker, may recommend that you go to a matching panel. If the panel agrees you are a good match for the child, the arrangement will change from a fostering placement to an adoption placement.
If you are interested in fostering for adoption, you should contact adoption agencies and make enquiries. It is likely that each local authority will have slightly different policies and approaches in relation to fostering for adoption. You could also contact First4Adoption.
