What is adoption?
Adoption is a permanent, life long commitment which is achieved via a legal process. This process eventually transfers the responsibilities and duties of a child’s birth parents to adopters by the making of an adoption order. Once this is made, the child becomes the full legal responsibility of its adoptive parents and cannot be changed. Children placed with approved adopters are the legal responsibility of Leeds City Council until an adoption order is made.
Are there children in Leeds waiting for adoption?
Adoption is a priority for an increasing number of Leeds 'looked after' children. On average, we normally need to place around 80 children a year with our approved adopters. Adoption today is largely about meeting the needs of ‘older’ children, mainly in the 2 – 8 year age range. All children waiting for the opportunity for adoption are cared for by Leeds foster carers.
Leeds children needing adoption:
- range mainly in age from 2 – 8 yrs of age
- may be both girls or boys
- may be a sibling group who need placing together
- include some children with special needs (e.g.:a degree of disability)
- reflect a range of ethnic backgrounds
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Are there children who are considered a priority?
We need to prioritise those children who tend to wait longer for adoption. We urgently need adopters for the following:
- single children age 2years and above, both boys and girls
- sibling (family groups) of children, normally 2, sometimes 3 children who need placing together
- children of ethnicity, including children who reflect a dual heritage (e.g.: Black Caribbean / White .
Are there babies or infants available to adopt?
In common with other adoption agencies, we have a limited number of healthy babies and infants of White / UK origin in the 0-2 yr age range to place for adoption each year. We can take interest and applications for this age range but need to point out that the timescale for matching adopters to children in this age category could take longer than that for other age groups and categories for which we need to prioritise.
Babies / Infants with disability:
We do need to place a small number of babies / infants each year who have a complex developmental or health prognosis (including being born to a drug dependent parent) and babies or infants with a degree of disability. Our Family Placement Service can provide advice and guidance on the adoption of children with a disability via the new Adoption and Permanency Service for Disabled Children. Please contact us on(0113) 247 5095 for more advice.
Children of Black and Ethnic minority backgrounds:
We have babies and infants in the 0-2 age group who reflect a particular ethnicity e.g. Black Caribbean or Asian, who need adopters of the same or similar ethnic origin. We also have children of mixed ethnicity who need adopters that reflect their cultural and ethnic needs.
Who can adopt?
Adoption serves the needs of a wide range of children, so we need adopters to reflect the widest range of backgrounds and circumstances. To adopt you may be single, married, partners but unmarried, divorced, remarried, childless or have children already.
Age is not necessarily an issue – people of all ages adopt with us. The key issue is being able to provide a stable, secure home for a child up to adulthood and beyond.
We welcome interest from enquirers regardless of income, gender, religion, sexuality, disability or race.
What checks are needed if I apply to adopt?
If we agree to receive an application from you, we will ask for your consent to process criminal convictions and other required checks. Certain convictions can prevent an application proceeding - any disclosed conviction history is discussed with applicants in confidence and you will be advised if a conviction will affect an application.
We will also require confirmation about your health – we only achieve this once we have agreed to pursue an application with you.
For more detailed advice on issues affecting a suitability to adopt, please contact us on: 0113 2474747
How long will it take to adopt?
We are committed to providing an assessment and preparation process resulting in your approval as adopters which would normally take up to eight months from application. The assessment and preparation process involves the need to provide a profile report (home study) on your suitability for our adoption panel and includes a 3 day preparation course run by staff and experienced adopters.
At this stage it is difficult to generalise how long you would wait following your approval to have a child placed with you. This will depend on a number of factors (e.g. your type of approval or availability of children) but it would be likely that if you were approved for children in our priority groups, then a placement with you could be achieved quickly.
The last stage is achieving an adoption order in court. This completes a legal process which is finalised once a child has been placed with adopters. This normally takes a few months from a child being placed.
How do I register my interest or apply to adopt with Leeds ?
You need to attend one of our monthly Adoption information meetings, where Registration forms are made available. If you are unable to attend these meetings, please contact us so we can discuss your situation and arrange an alternative way for you to provide your Registration of Interest.
For more details on our monthly Adoption Information Meetings, please contact us on: 0113 247 4747
Following receipt of your Registration of Interest, we will arrange for adoption staff to contact you and arrange to visit you at home. This provides an important opportunity to discuss your interest and if appropriate, agree your Application to adopt.
Please remember you can only formally apply to adopt with one agency at a time. Once you have agreed to proceed, you are unable to apply to another agency unless you agree to withdraw or circumstances dictate our advice that you should cease your commitment with us.
If I live outside Leeds, can I adopt with Leeds City Council?
We prioritise Leeds resident / postcode adoption interest. We can only discuss enquiries from people who live outside Leeds but geographically near (eg Wakefield, Bradford, Kirklees etc ) who are interested in meeting the adoption needs of our priority groups of children (e.g.: children age 3yrs plus / sibling groups / children with a disability - for more details on our priority groups, please see above). We are unable to pursue interest from people outside Leeds if interest is in either baby adoption or single children under 3 years of age.
If you live outside Leeds, we advise you contact your own Local Authority adoption service or Voluntary agency first for details of their adoption services.
I am interested in adopting from abroad so how do I get information?
Information on these pages relates to the adoption of Leeds children who are looked after by Leeds City Council. For those interested in adopting from abroad, we can provide some advice and guidance, and for Leeds residents only, a 'home study' assessment service. Please note: You do not need to attend our Adoption Information Meetings if your interest is adopting from abroad. To request more information and advice on adopting from overseas, please contact us on: 0113 247 4747. There are other organisations and contacts who provide information on adopting from abroad which can be accessed via the 'Adoption - other information, organisations and contacts' page on this site.
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