LGBTQ+ in England, exploring adopting and looking at agencies? If an agency you’re considering isn’t on the list below, you may want to ask it why. 

Since the summer, senior leaders from across the adoption sector in England have attended training to develop their agencies’ understanding of the issues LGBTQ+ adoption applicants and adoptive parents face. The training is part of a package of work for the National Adoption Recruitment Strategy Group. The course is open to and free for senior leaders delivering services to adoption agencies in England.

Some 14 half-day sessions were organised to deliver the first half of the training, which is a two part course. The first wave of training sessions concludes later in November, with the second half of the training course due later in 2022 and early 2023.

Among the regional and voluntary adoption agencies participating in the training are:

Action for Children

Adopt Coast to Coast RAA

Adopt East RAA

Adopt London East RAA

Adopt London West RAA

Adopt North East RAA

Adopt South RAA

Adopt South West RAA

Adopt Thames Valley RAA

Adopters for Adoption

Adoption Central England (ACE) RAA

Adoption Connects RAA

Adoption East Midlands RAA

Adoption Focus

Adoption in Merseyside RAA

Adoption Lancashire & Blackpool RAA

Adoption Matters

Adoption Now RAA

Adoption Partnership South East RAA

Adoption South East RAA

Adoption West RAA

Birmingham Children's Trust RAA

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Adoption RAA

Caritas Care

CCS Adoption

Coram Ambitious for Adoption RAA

Coram BAAF

CVAA

Diagrama

Family Adoption Links RAA

ICA Centre

National Adoption Leeds

One Adoption North & Humber RAA

One Adoption West Yorkshire RAA

PACT Charity

SSAFA

St Francis’ Children’s Society

Together for Adoption RAA

Yorkshire Adoption Agency

For more information on the training drop us a line through the Contact Us form 

CCS adoption was today (7 October) named as the recipient of the 2022 agency commendation award from New Family Social's LGBTQ+ adopter and foster carer members. 

The announcement comes at the close of the New Family Social's Adoption & Fostering Support Week for LGBTQ+ parents.

One LGBTQ+ adoptive parents nominating the agency said: ‘Throughout our whole adoption process CCS Adoption [was] so supportive. [The staff went] out of their way to help with the settlement of our children into our family. [CCS Adoption] provided specialist services to our family and ongoing support post adoption. We truly couldn't have asked for a better team of dedicated people.’

Accepting the award, CCS adoption's Emma Simpson said: 'CCS is delighted and so proud to receive the 2022 New Family Social members' commendation award. We've been positively promoting and supporting our LGBTQ+ adopters for many years now, through our social group and staff champions and are so pleased that our adopters have voted for us in recognition of this work.'

 

LGBTQ+ adoptive parents to more than one child experience greater levels of physical violence, violence against their home & property and verbal abuse from their children, than LGBTQ+ people who adopt one child. Suffering in silence? LGBTQ+ adoptive parents' experience of & response to violence from their children published today (7 October), reveals a disparity between the real-life experience of child to parent violence for LGBTQ+ adoptive parents to one child compared to those who adopt more than one. LGBTQ+ adoptive parents to more than one child are significantly less likely to seek support from their social worker or post adoption support services, than those parenting one adopted child.

Among the results in Suffering in silence? LGBTQ+ adoptive parents' experience of & response to violence from their children:

4 in 10 LGBTQ+ adoptive parents of one adopted child say that child directed physical violence towards them or their partner in the previous 12 months. 5 in 10 LGBTQ+ adoptive parents of more than one adopted child said the same.

Of those LGBTQ+ parents who’d adopted one child and experienced violence directed towards them/their partner, 66 per cent sought help from post-adoption support or their social worker. When asked the same question, 48 per cent of LGBTQ+ adoptive parents of more than one child, who’d experienced violence directed towards them/their partner, said they sought support.

The disparity is also visible on the experience of violence directed against the home or property and seeking support for it; 73 per cent of LGBTQ+ adoptive parents who’d adopted one child and experienced this behaviour said they contacted their social worker or post-adoption support for help. Of those LGBTQ+ adoptive parents who’d adopted more than one child and then experienced violence against their home or property, 32 per cent reported contacting their social worker or post-adoption support for help.

Access New Family Social's research [Gold/Silver/Bronze/Orange members, requires log-in]

Join New Family Social for free 

If you’ve experienced child to parent violence and need support, please contact your social worker or post-adoption support service. You may also find the following organisations helpful:

National Domestic Abuse Helpline / 0808 2000 247 

Family Lives / 0808 800 2222 

Children 1st Parentline [for families in Scotland] / 08000 28 22 33 

Parenting NI [for parents in Northern Ireland] / 0808 8010 722 

Adoption & Fostering Support Week for LGBTQ+ parents will return from 03 October, 2022. The awareness campaign shares the latest polling from LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers across Britain, sharing new support materials for them and helping agencies improve the support services they offer. 

Don't want to wait until October? You can check out the 2021 campaign right now. 

Public nominations are open for New Family Social's 2022 awards. These commend adoption/fostering agencies and individual social workers for their work with LGBTQ+ people across the UK.

Nominations close at midday on 30 August, with the results announced during Adoption & Fostering Support Week for LGBTQ+ parents 2022.

New Family Social's LGBTQ+ adopter and foster carer members who hold a Bronze, Silver or Gold membership can participate, by naming agencies, social workers and providing examples of why they are worthy of recognition.

Enter as a Bronze member [log-in required]

Enter as a Silver member [log-in required]

Enter as a Gold member [log-in required]

You can also check out the 2021 winners which included Adoption Matters and Caritas Care. 

   

New figures published this week show that there were a record number of adoptions in Scotland to same-sex couples couples in 2021. In total there were 44 adoptions to same-sex couples, out of a total of 480.  The previous high was 41 adoptions in 2019. The new figures show that 9.2 per cent - or 1 in 11 - adoptions in Scotland in 2021 were to same-sex couples. 

Despite these record figures, Scotland remains behind England and Wales in the proportion of adoptions to LGBTQ+ people, with England recording 1 in 6 adoptions to same-sex couples in 2021 and Wales 1 in 8.

No UK country successfully records the full engagement of LGBTQ+ people in adoption. The data collected is on the composition of the adoptive family - one man and woman, two men, two women - rather than sexual orientation or gender identity data of the adoptive parents. This means all data above excludes single adoptive parents, bi people in an opposite gender relationship and trans people in an opposite-gender relationship.

Year	Male couples	Female couples	Total same-sex couples in Scotland
2010 (earliest year on record)	4	1	5
2011	0	1	1
2012	7	1	8
2013	11	3	14
2014	7	10	17
2015	11	11	22
2016	24	6	30
2017	23	7	30
2018	23	5	28
2019	27	14	41
2020	11	7	18
2021	32	12	44

Source of Data: National Records of Scotland

LGBTQ+ adoptive parents feature in the latest ep of the Blended podcast - which is a special focusing on Fathers' Day. They share their experiences of parenting and how they'll mark the event.

Listen now on Apple podcasts 

We're recruiting! Could you be our new Supporter Engagement Manager, helping LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers?

Find out more about the role by heading over to the vacancy page.

Applications close on 28 June.

As we head into Pride month, New Family Social shared some of its thoughts on what Pride means with Fyne Times. We also covered some of the barriers that LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers can face in participating in parades and cutting comments from within our community.

Read the piece online

Day tickets for New Family Social's summer camp 2022 are now on sale. Summer Camp - which brings together hundreds of LGBTQ+ adopters, foster carers and the children they care for, from across the UK - takes place 25-29 August. It's a great opportunity to share time with other LGBTQ+ parented families and to build new friendships.

LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers who hold a Gold or Silver membership can log in now to find out more. 

Summer Camp 2022