Owning a home isn’t essential, but you’ll need a secure tenancy agreement and a plan for future housing if needed. Having the stability of your home is important for the child you adopt.

This is individual and shaped by the children’s needs and experiences. The children in foster care may share a room that provides security and companionship. It may be that the children can share, but having their own space as they grow older needs to be considered. The children’s gender, age and specific needs are all part of the deliberations regarding siblings sharing a bedroom. Often the social workers for the child will specify their requirements with regards to siblings sharing a bedroom.

Yes, but any extended family living with you will need to be involved in the assessment process and understand the needs of adopted children. Their thoughts feelings about you becoming an adopter will be asked as will the impact of adoption on them. Any adult over the age of 18 will need to have a DBS check as part of the assessment.

To adopt in England, you must be a legal resident for at least a year. EU nationals can consider adopting if they have a permanent UK home and have lived here for a year.

If you’ve recently been through fertility journey, we recommend adopters take some time to adjust before starting the adoption process.   We want you to be sure that the path of adoption is not conflicted by loss or grief regarding infertility.

Being reasonably fluent in English is recommended to advocate for your child and fully understand adoption. The expectation will be to speak English to you child and this to be the language of the household. Your adopted child is likely, especially in the early period is likely to feel excluded if you do not speak in English.

Adopters can be of any faith or none. Children often have a faith and often their Social Worker will look for adopters of the same faith. If you are not of the same faith, being able to promote the child’s religion, faith is important. Children come from diverse backgrounds, and we are looking for adopters to meet their needs.

Single, married, or long-term partners are all welcome. The key is a stable and enduring relationship of at least a year.

We welcome adopters from all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. Your life experiences and culture will form an important part of how you can meet and understand a child’s needs.  

Children from Black and global majority backgrounds wait the longest, this is due to a lack of adopters who can meet their cultural needs. We encourage adopters who can address this disparity to come forward and explore adoption.  

Yes, we have supported many single adopters over the years. We encourage single adopters to start building a robust support network as part of their preparation to adopt.

We welcome adopters of all sexualities and gender identities. If you are part of the LGBTQ+ community and are looking for support, New Family Social have lots of information and networking opportunities.

The Adoption Medical will raise any previous or current mental health conditions that your social worker will discuss with you. This allows any issues to be put in the context of becoming an adopter and parent to a child until they are 18 years old and beyond.

If your BMI is of concern to our Medical Advisor, we will discuss this with you and help you with a plan for weight reduction. The aim is for you to be able to keep up with your child into adulthood.

Absolutely! A medical assessment will consider your circumstances and ability to parent a child consistently and safely.

Serious offences against children or sexual offences will prevent you from going through the adoption process – see eligibility to adopt. Other offences will be considered based on details like severity and when they happened. Honesty is key – discuss any offences openly with the agency.

Yes, many adoptive families have pets! The exception would be dangerous dogs. We’ll assess if your pets are safe around children.

We recommend at least one adopter take time off work after placement (ideally 12 months) to allow the child to settle and feel secure. Being flexible and having a plan for how to manage if you need to take more time off or work part time is also an important consideration.

Debt is okay if it’s manageable alongside living expenses. We do not want you to have worries about money that may distract you from the demanding task of parenting. Your employment situation is not a barrier, and sometimes financial support is available from the placing agency. Openness about finances is encouraged from the start.

The minimum age to adopt is 21. Otherwise, age is considered based on your health and ability to parent a child into adulthood.

Yes! You can adopt before or after having birth children. If you have children already, the child’s social worker will stipulate based on the child’s needs the age gap to the youngest child in the household - to be usually between 2-5 years older than the adopted child.

Family Futures is a Voluntary Adoption Agency, who recruit, assesses and supports adopters in matching and placement with children. Regional Adoption Agencies are the mechanism for Local Authorities to provide adoption services and place the children they have for adoption.