Who are the children?

There are all sorts of children who need adoptive parents in Worcestershire, from babies to young teenagers. Most of those waiting for adoption will have complex histories and will currently be looked after by foster carers.

Children and young people come into our care for a variety of reasons, and may have emotional and behavioural difficulties.

One thing that they will all have in common is that their birth families are unable to care for them and the children need a new permanent family to be there for them as they grow up.

Most children will have experienced early adversity and may display a range of behaviours that do not make it easy for them to fit into a family initially. A child's journey through to adoption can have included several foster placement moves and a lot of work will have been done to prepare them for a move into adoption.

However, the children will need an enormous amount of commitment, nurturing and attention to help them recover from their early life experiences, to feel secure and to learn to trust again. At different developmental milestones and during life changes some of these early life experiences will be triggered and the children will need support.

Our children are special and come from diverse backgrounds with different life experiences. We need adoptive families from different ethnic backgrounds and people who have a range of experience. It's important for us to match families who reflect the ethnicity & understand the cultural backgrounds of our children - currently around 90% of Worcestershire County Council’s children who need to be fostered or adopted are White British. Others are Black or from minority ethnic groups, usually of a mixed background, White and Black Caribbean or of White and Asian ethnicity.

Quite often brothers and sisters may need to be placed in adoptive families together. Therefore we are always seeking adoptive families who will be able to open their homes to sibling groups of two, three or more children.

Worcestershire County Council looks after many children, some of whom have disabilities. They may have learning or physical disabilities, a combination of these, vulnerable health or complex medical conditions. Some may have life limiting conditions.

The main thing to be aware of is that these children are children first, but with additional needs. As such they need the same life chances and experiences as any other child with the additional requirement of extra care and attention.

We are not pretending that adopting a child is an easy task. However, if you decide to adopt you will be part of a team of people around the child. We will be alongside you, preparing, training and supporting you - helping you, help them.

We will always prioritise applications from potential adopters who match the needs of the children we currently have waiting for adoption - as the children are always our first priority.