Skip to:

Regional collaboratives

Education support

Housing support

Regional collaboratives & local authorities

In Wales the local authority adoption services work together in ‘regional collaboratives’. Some of these will be your first point of contact for adoption support. They will undertake an assessment of your adoption support needs.

In other regions it will be local authority teams that undertake this assessment.

If you adopted through a voluntary adoption agency you could also approach that agency to discuss the post adoption support services they may be able to offer.

You can find out more on the National Adoption Service website.

Education support

If you feel your child needs extra support as a result of their adoption, you have the right to have an assessment of adoption support needs. If you think your child might have special educational needs you can ask your local authority to assess these needs too.

Schools are asked to give all children adopted from care priority access. This means that your adopted child should be able to attend the school you think best meets their needs. Find out more about school admissions online.

There is also funding within the local education consortia to help your child’s school understand and meet any additional needs of your child. This is through the Pupil Deprivation Grant. 

Housing support for adopters in Wales

Adopters may have priority for council housing. If you live in council housing and claim Housing Benefit or Universal Credit while waiting for a child to move in you can also apply for funding (Discretionary Housing Payments) so that you are not penalized financially while you have an empty spare room. Find out more on the gov.uk website.

Find out more about the support available generally to adopters in Wales from the National Adoption Service.