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 our legal responsibility until an adoption order is made.
Adoption through Family Placement
We need to place a small number of babies / infants each year for adoption who have developmental or health problems (including being born to a drug dependent parent) and whose future prognosis is uncertain. In addition to young children who have a specifically diagnosed disability. We are interested in hearing from people who feel they are in a position to offer a permanent commitment to this type of child.
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 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.
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 three day preparation course run by staff and experienced adopters.
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.
Financial support
Ongoing financial support may be available in certain circumstances.
Applications from people who live outside the Leeds area.
We normally prioritise Leeds resident / postcode adoption interest. However we can discuss enquiries from people who live outside Leeds but geographically near (eg Wakefield, Bradford, Kirklees etc ) who are interested in adopting a child, through Family Placement.
How to apply to adopt
If you would be interested in applying to adopt a child through Family Placement please call 0113 2478939 for further discussions.
It will be necessary for you to attend one of the monthly adoption information meetings where registration forms are made available. For more details about these please contact the adoption services on 0113 2474747
If you would like more information about adopting a child with us please see the adoption homepage link on this page.