Equality legislation in the UK means that it's now illegal for adoption and fostering agencies to refuse to work with you because of your sexual orientation. Similarly, your gender identity should not be used as a reason to accept you as a potential adopter or foster carer.

Because there's an ongoing shortage of both potential adopters and foster carers it's highly unusual for LGBT+ people to share with us stories of discrimination they've experienced when applying to adopt or foster.

Living with HIV, or prior experience of mental health issues don't prevent you from adopting or fostering either. You will need to show that you'll have the energy and health to parent a child, but neither of these instances automatically prevent you from applying to adopt or foster. Similarly there's no upper age limit to either process, just the need to show that you can provide the parenting and care to see your child into adulthood, or for as long as it's anticipated you need to foster them for.

For more information on the requirements to adopt read this summary by First4Adoption.

For more information on the requirements to foster read this information by the Fostering Network.

Whether you provide respite care or a long-term placement all foster carers need support. The level of support a fostering agency will provide to you will vary by agency, so we strongly recommend that you explore your options with both your local authority service, independent agencies and those run by the voluntary sector. This will help you identify the agency best suited to you, the type of fostering you want to provide and the level of support you're likely to need.

Fostering in the UK is a devolved matter, so check out the links below for your specific country.

If you're fostering in England you can also read  Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards published by the Department for Education. Skip to page 44 for the support foster carers should expect.

In Scotland there's a wealth of legislation and guidance you can turn to, which is handily listed online by the Fostering Network.

For legislation and guidance in Wales, check out this list compiled by the Fostering Network.

In Northern Ireland you can read this information compiled by the Department of Health.

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.

Skip to:

Education support

Source legislation

Education support for adopters in Scotland

Looked after children have the same rights to extra support in school as other children. All children who are looked after are automatically assumed to have additional support needs – unless they’re assessed and it’s decided they don’t have additional support needs at that time.

However, they may still need extra support later to cope with disruptions or upset caused by leaving a foster family, moving home or changing school. The child’s local authority must consider whether a looked after child needs a coordinated support plan.

Education, social work and staff from other agencies should work together to assess and plan the support a looked after child needs. Local authorities should have detailed policies in place on the education of looked after children to makes sure this happens. The child should be involved in planning their support and have a say in decisions about what they will learn at school and the support they need.

If a child is looked after, their home authority has responsibility for their education even if they are:

• placed in accommodation in another local authority and attending a school in that authority
• placed in a school in another local authority, for example, because school provision that meets their needs is available there.

For more information visit Enquire – the Scottish advice service for additional support for learning.

Read More: Additional support for learning: A guide for parents or carers of looked after children, Enquire

Support for two year old children

Some two-year-olds – including those who are looked after –are entitled to 600 hours a year of early learning and childcare.

Looked after children up to the age of three

Your local authority should also provide additional support for two-year-old looked after children receiving their funded hours of early learning and childcare

School-age children

Your local authority must identify whether your child has additional support needs and give them the appropriate support if they:

• attend or are registered with a school run by your authority
• receive education in another local authority school under arrangements made by your own authority
• have been placed at an independent special school or grant-aided school by your authority.

Your local authority must provide your child with ‘adequate and efficient’ additional support so that they can benefit fully from their education. The term ‘adequate and efficient’ is taken from the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. The Act focuses on individual provision directed at every child.

Find out more – The parents’ guide to additional support for learning, Enquire

Source legislation on adoption support

The Adoption Support Services and Allowances (Scotland) Regulations 2009

The Adoption Support Services and Allowances (Scotland) Regulations 2009: Circumstances in which adoption allowances may be paid

This page outlines the support adopters in England can access.

Skip to

Education support

Housing support

Adoption leave & pay

Adoption support plans

Prior to applying for an adoption order, an adoption support plan is drawn up between the adoptive parents and social workers. The plan outlines the support the child is expected to need in the future and how the adoptive parents will access it. As it can be more difficult to access support once the adoption order is made – with responsibility ceasing to be shared between the adoptive parents and the state, to only being the adopters’ responsibility – many New Family Social members find it useful to delay applying for an adoption order until they feel their concerns and requests for support are fully reflected in the adoption support plan.

Where do I get support from?

Your local authority can advise you on possible adoption support services that may be available to you.

The local authority that places the child with you is responsible for assessing your adoption support needs for three years after the adoption order. After three years it becomes the responsibility of the local authority where you live, if they are different.

If the child has lived with you for more than three years then contact your local authority to find out what support services might be available in your area. Each local authority has an adviser responsible for the services provided by that local authority. The adoption support team in your local authority is legally obliged to assess the needs of you and your child – and will consider with you what services could be of help.

If you adopt through a voluntary adoption agency you can approach it to discuss what post-adoption support services it provides that may help you. If necessary, your agency could help you approach your local authority if appropriate.

For more information visit First4Adoption.

Adoption Support Fund

This is funding for essential therapy services for adoptive families, as and when they need it. There's also separate funding for essential assessments that can be accessed if it is recognised that one is needed in order to better target needed therapy services - which some members find useful as this bypasses the local CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services) provision and isn't subject to the same waiting list, which can be a matter of years. Find out more on First4Adoption.

Education support for English adopters

Pupil Premium

This is funding – £1,900 per pupil – to help education providers give extra support to all children adopted from care to help them reach their potential. Visit First4Adoption for more information on how to help your child’s school access Pupil Premium.

Early Years Pupil Premium: Pre-school support funding

This is additional funding for early years pre-school settings to improve the education they provide for disadvantaged 3- and 4 year-olds including – but not restricted to – those adopted from care.

The funding goes directly to registered early years providers – including pre-schools, nurseries and childminders – that offer children free early education entitlement. Find out more on the First4Adoption website.

Priority access to school places

Adopted children living in England have priority access to schools, so that their parents have the greatest chance to gain a place in the school that most meets their child’s needs. Find out more on gov.uk.

Free education and childcare for 2-year-olds

A child can get free early education and childcare if they’re looked after by a local council or have left care under a special guardianship order, child arrangements order or adoption order. Find out more on gov.uk.

Housing support for adopters in England

Priority housing for approved adopters

Approved adopters may be entitled to priority access to council housing . This depends on the adopter’s individual Local Authority housing policy. Make enquiries with the Housing Department in your local authority to establish what their policy is. Find out more from First4Adoption.

Discretionary housing payments

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 Discretionary Housing Payments so that you’re not penalised financially while you have an empty spare room. Find out more on gov.uk.

Adoption leave and pay

Employed adopters are usually entitled to adoption leave and may be entitled to adoption pay, which is a legal right if you meet the criteria. Certain employers offer a more generous scheme than the statutory one, but no employer can offer less than the statutory amounts.

Read First4Adoption for a handy summary of the rules and entitlements for adopters arranging adoption leave and pay.

'To make sure that staff who adopt are treated as equally as staff who need time off for antenatal appointments, you can get paid time off work to attend five adoption appointments after you’ve been matched with a child. You will qualify for this paid time off if you qualify for statutory adoption leave. Your pay for these appointments should be at your normal salary rate and the time off shouldn’t be deducted from your adoption leave.

'If you don’t qualify for statutory adoption leave because your partner will take it – only one person in a couple can take adoption leave – you can still take time off work to attend two adoption appointments. The time off for these two appointments will be unpaid – unless your employer chooses to offer them as paid time off – to mirror the situation with a pregnant couple, where the pregnant woman’s partner is entitled to unpaid leave for two antenatal appointments.'

There's different support available for adopters depending on which country you are assessed in and adopt from.

Pick your country!

England	Scotland
Wales	Northern Ireland

• 490 adoptions to same-sex couples in 2019

• 1 in 7 adoptions now to same-sex couples in England

 

One in seven adoptions in England were to same-sex couples in 2019, statistics released today (5 December) by the Department for Education reveal. 490 adoptions were to same-sex couples in England in 2018/19, the highest ever number in a single year raising the previous record from 450.

The total number of adoptions in England in 2019 fell to 3,570, the fourth consecutive year-on-year decline since 2015.  The number of children looked after in England rose by 4 per cent to 78,150 at 31 March 2019.

Tor Docherty, chief executive of New Family Social said: ‘It’s fantastic to see the increasing number of children finding their new forever families in England with LGBT+ people. In every adoption case the needs of the child must be paramount and today’s figures show that a number of agencies now work hard to consider a broader range of potential parents. However, there are still thousands of children in care whose lives could be transformed by an LGBT+ adopter or foster carer.’

Of the 490 adoptions, 240 were to married same-sex couples, 100 to couples in a civil partnership and 150 to same-sex couples not married or in a civil partnership. The statistics do not include the sexual orientation or gender identity of single adopters, bisexual people not in a same-sex relationship or trans people – unless they are part of a same-sex couple.

Below is a summary of what the major parties have said in their manifestos about their plans for adoption, fostering, ongoing support for adoptive parents/foster carers and their kids and engaging LGBT+ people with these parenting routes.

Brexit party

No explicit references to adoption, fostering, ongoing support for families doing either or improving LGBT+ engagement.

Read the whole manifesto 

Conservative party

‘We will prioritise stable, loving placements for (children in care) – adoption where possible or foster parents recruited by the local authority. We will review the care system to make sure that all care placements and settings are providing children and young adults with the support they need.’

Read the whole manifesto

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)

Manifesto currently unavailable

Green party

‘(Will) support councils to extend staying put arrangements, to enable fostered young people to stay with foster parents until they are 21.’

‘(Will) create a fully inclusive education system, where children with special education needs are able to access their local school and are fully supported in that school. This means ensuring accessible buildings, an inclusive curriculum and the provision of specially trained teachers across the school system. Specialist schools will be retained, for when children and parents would prefer that option.’

Read the whole manifesto

The Independent Group for Change

No explicit references to adoption, fostering, ongoing support for families doing either or improving LGBT+ engagement.

Read the whole manifesto

Labour party

‘(We will) put LGBT+ equality at the heart of government, ensuring our public services are LGBT+ inclusive and delivering on the national LGBT Action Plan…

‘Labour will launch a wholesale review of the care system, including kinship care, considering national standards such as a central register of foster parents and regulation of semi-supported housing, to ensure we meet the needs of every child.

‘We will protect and build on Staying Put for over-18s in care and the Adoption Support Fund.’

Read the whole manifesto 

Liberal Democrats

‘(We will) increase statutory paternity leave from the current two weeks up to six weeks and ensure that parental leave is a day-one right, and address continuing inequalities faced by same-sex couples.

‘(Will) triple the Early Years Pupil Premium (to £1,000) to give extra help to disadvantaged children who are at risk of falling behind from the very beginning of their education.’

‘(Will) end the crisis in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities funding by allocating additional cash to local authorities to halve the amount that schools pay towards the cost of a child’s Education Health and Care Plan.’

Read the whole manifesto

Plaid Cymru

No explicit references to adoption, fostering, ongoing support for families doing either or improving LGBT+ engagement.

Read the whole manifesto

Scottish National Party

Manifesto not yet published

UKIP

No explicit references to adoption, fostering, ongoing support for families doing either or improving LGBT+ engagement.

Read the whole manifesto

New Family Social’s LGBT+ Adoption & Fostering Week campaign returns in 2020, from 2-8 March. More information will be announced shortly and New Family Social member agencies that want to sign up for more information can complete this form to be added to the mailing list and join other agencies already receiving information including:

• ACE Adoption
• Action for Children
• Adopt London South
• Adopt South
• Adopt Thames Valley
• Adopt Together
• Adoption Connects
• Adoption Counts
• Adoption Focus
• Adoption Matters
• ARC Adoption North East
• Aspire Adoption
• Barnardo’s
• Birmingham Children’s Trust
• Bristol City Council
• Buckinghamshire County Council
• Caldecott Fostering
• Cambridgeshire County Council Fostering
• Caritas Care
• CCS Adoption
• City of Stoke-on-Trent
• Family Futures
• Five Rivers
• Kent County Council
• Leicestershire County Council
• Lincolnshire County Council
• London Borough of Southwark
• Medway Council
• Norfolk County Council
• Northumberland County Council
• One Adoption North & Humber
• One Adoption West Yorkshire
• PACT (Parents and Children Together)
• Rochdale Borough Council Fostering Service
• Scottish Adoption
• Sheffield City Council
• Slough Children’s Services Trust
• Southampton City Council
• St Andrew’s Children’s Society
• St David’s Children Society
• St Francis’ Children’s Society
• Staffordshire County Council
• Stockport Council
• Suffolk County Council
• Team Fostering
• Thurrock Council
• Together for Adoption
• Tower Hamlets
• Vale, Valleys & Cardiff Regional Adoption Collaborative
• Worcestershire County Council
• Yorkshire Adoption Agency
  

Adoptions by same same-sex couples in Wales fell to 40 in 2019, recently published figures by Stats Wales reveal. This means that the proportion of adoptions in Wales to same-sex couples fell to 1 in 8.