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?
Yes. 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 3 – 8 year age range. All children waiting for the opportunity of adoption are cared for by Leeds foster carers.
Leeds children needing adoption:
- range mainly in age from 3 – 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
Are there children who are considered a priority?
We need to prioritise those children who tend to wait longer for adoption. so we urgently need adopters for the following:
- single children age 3 years 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 and infants available to adopt?
In common with other adoption agencies, we have a very limited number of healthy babies and infants of White / UK origin in the 0-2 yr age range to place for adoption each year. The waiting period for those interested in this age group and timescales for matching approved adopters to children in this age category can be lengthy. We should also point out that we need to place children at least 2 years younger than any children already in your household so families with young children will not be able to realistically pursue an adoption interest until your child is at least 4 years of age.
Babies / Infants with disability:
We do need to place a small number of babies / infants each year who have a more 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.
Employees of Leeds City Council Children's Services / Children's Social Care, Senior Council Officers and Elected Members are unable to adopt with Leeds City Council (Reg 20, Fostering Regulations 2002 - see also Fostering Policy page). For further advice, please contact us.
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. Any identified health issues affecting an ability to adopt would be discussued with you and would receive consultation from a medical advisor to our adoption panel.
Adoption Service policy is working towards smoke free environments for it's looked after children - we do not approve applicants who smoke to adopt children under the age of 5 years unless under exceptional circumstances.
(For more detailed advice on issues affecting a suitability to adopt, please contact us).
How long will it take to adopt?
Once we have agreed to receive a application to adopt (at or following a Initial Visit discussion) we than need to allocate available adoption staff to commence your assessment and preparation (often called a 'home study'). Due to the increasing number of prospective adopters currently awaiting allocation, we need to advise that currently we are expecting a 6 - 9 month waiting period after application before appointing a adoption worker to start assessment (home study).
Once a worker is appointed, we are committed to providing an assessment and preparation process (home study) resulting in your approval as adopters which would normally take around 6 months. The assessment and preparation process involves the need to provide a profile report on your suitability for our adoption panel and currently 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 more 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 first need to attend one of our monthly adoption information meetings, where Registration forms are made available.
Adoption Information Meetings:
Information meetings are designed to offer a range of introductory information on adopting with Leeds City Council, presented by experienced adoption staff. The meeting presentation starts at 7pm prompt and is normally completed by 8pm allowing a short period afterwards for questions and answers. If enquirers wish to pusue their interest further, Registration of Interest forms are available after the meeting.
Forthcoming information meetings (Venue: Merrion House, Merrion Centre, Merrion Way , Leeds LS2 8QB, 7pm - 8.30pm) are arranged for:
March 23rd April 20th May 18th June 22nd July 20th
(Please arrive from 6.45pm, sign in and wait in ground floor reception. Staff will assit you in taking you to the meeting room. The meeting presentation starts at 7pm. You do not need to book and can attend any advertised meeting of your choice).
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, Harrogate etc ) and who are interested in meeting the adoption needs of our priority groups of children (please see above). We are unable to pursue interest from people outside Leeds if interest is in either baby / infant adoption or single children under 3 years of age. We are experiencing higher volume of contact from enquirers outside Leeds and need to point out that we have to prioritise Leeds postcode resident interest first.
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. Please contact us for further advice if you live outside Leeds and certainly before attending any of our Adoption Information Meetings.
I am interested in adopting from overseas 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 Leeds residents only we can provide initial advice and guidance on a overseas adoption interest and further to initial assessment, consider undertaking the required 'home study' for suitable applicants. Overseas adoption home study assessments are undertaken subject to staff availability and agreement on costs charged to applicants. Given our priorities to Leeds looked after children needing adoption, we are only able to offer a limited service to those wishing to adopt from overseas.
Please note: Our Adoption Information Meetings do not include Overseas Adoption. To request more information and advice on overseas adoption, please contact us on: 0113 247 4747.
For those researching overseas adoption, more detailed guidance and information can be accessed via the 'Adoption - Other Organisations - Contacts' page on this site.
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