Types of adoption Domestic Adoption Adoption Focus offers adoption services to people living across the West Midlands, Staffordshire, Oxfordshire and neighbouring counties. We recruit, assess and prepare prospective adopters and following approval, work with Local Authorities from across the UK to place children with them. We also offer post-approval and post-adoption support services. This is all we do – we are a dedicated adoption agency and our work is rated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted. Early Permanence Early permanence is the term given to placements intended to speed up a child’s journey through care and minimise the disruption of repeated moves to different families. It allows children to be placed with approved adopters who have also been approved as foster carers, enabling the children to experience a loving, settled and secure home as quickly as possible. When a child can’t live with their birth family, local authorities and the courts are responsible for finding a new family without delay. All available options for the child's care must be fully explored before a decision is made to seek adopters. In most cases, during this time the child lives with foster carers. In early permanence placements, children are fostered by the people who are likely to become their adopters at an early stage, reducing the likelihood of multiple temporary placements. This decreases uncertainty for children by reducing the number of moves they experience and the trauma associated with this upheaval. Adoption Focus is now able to offer placements to early permanence carers through The Triangle Project. The Triangle Project is a partnership between Adoption Focus and St. Francis’ Children’s Society (SFCS), both successful and experienced adoption agencies. The Triangle Project trains, prepares, assesses and approves early permanence carers for vulnerable children. We work with potential parents, helping them to become dual-approved as both foster carers, approved through the Triangle Project fostering agency and adopters, approved through either Adoption Focus or SFCS, depending on the adopter’s geographical location. The Triangle Project is registered with Ofsted and has been funded by the Department for Education’s Practice and Improvement Fund for Adoption Services. Are you interested in exploring a different route to adoption? Could you offer an early permanence placement to a vulnerable child? For more information visit the Triangle Project website or call the switchboard on 0300 303 3707. You can also download the Triangle Project leaflet and read more detailed information about early permanence in our Guidance Notes. Inter-country adoption Some people decide that they want to adopt from another country. There are strict protocols surrounding this, both in this country and in any country that permits their children to be adopted by people from abroad. People who want to do this will need to be properly assessed, and undergo a number of checks and medicals. There is a fee to be approved for an inter-country adoption, and there will be other costs involved relating to the country the child comes from, and travel and hotel costs. Adoption Focus does not offer inter-country adoptions. If you want to find out more about this, we would advise you to contact IAC, the largest inter-country adoption agency in the UK www.icacentre.org.uk. Step-parent adoption Step-parent adoption is sometimes considered when an adult enters into a relationship with another adult, and becomes step-parent to their partner’s child. If they want to become the child’s legal parent, and share parental responsibility for the child with their partner, they may decide to adopt. For this to happen, the adults need to notify their Local Authority. Arrangements are made to assess the situation and a report is prepared for the court. The views of the absent parent and other family members e.g. grandparents must be considered and reported. Adoption Focus does not offer step-parent adoptions. If this is something you are considering, please contact the adoption team at your Local Authority. Can I adopt with Adoption Focus?