MK15 0AA By telephone: 01908 572700
Through our website: Get In Touch
Who can adopt?
Adoption is a challenging and a rewarding experience. The first few questions you may need to ask yourself are:
- Is adoption a possibility for me?
- Could this be the right time for me, or us to apply to adopt?
- Could the Society be the right agency for us t o work with?
Our Society is committed to finding those would be parents and preparing them to adopt. We welcome and encourage individuals from all walks of life.
You may be:
- childless or already have children
- of any or no religious faith
- married or in an enduring heterosexual or same sex relationship
- single
- young or old
- employed or not.
We will, however, prioritise applications from those prospective adopters most likely to be able to offer a family to children who have been waiting the longest. We make our decisions using information from the National Adoption Register.
We are most likely to give the green light to those who are interested and able to consider adopting sibling groups, older children, children with additional special needs ('Widening Horizons'), or those able to offer an appropriate family to a child from a BME background ('Anancy').
If you think that you may be able to become a parent to a child who needs a new family, then why not contact us?
What about health issues?
Everyone who wants to adopt has to have a medical and health check. Again there are few conditions which would immediately rule someone out, but adopters are expected to be in good general health and to have a reasonable life expectancy. We will consider various lifestyle issues with you such as smoking and weight, because we want to ensure as far as is possible that children are placed with families who can meet their needs for a long time to come.
Smoking
We follow national guidelines which express significant caution about the placement of any child within a smoking household. Those guidelines state very clearly that children under five years and children with any actual or potential health issues should not be placed with adopters who are smokers.
We encourage those who do smoke to seek advice and support from their GP or other services if they wish to cease smoking. Where applicants are smokers, we expect them to have stopped smoking for at least six months before making a formal application to adopt.
If you have any particular health issues, please tell us about them as soon as you make contact with us.
“Agencies like St Francis' Children’s Society are looking for all sorts of people for all sorts of children. You may be single, married or in a stable relationship, have children or be childless. You may be from any cultural or ethnic backgro und; there’s a huge need for families from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds to come forward to adopt. What you do need is a real commitment to making the lives of children better…and a sense of humour and adventure!”
Quote from adopter
Please click on the links at the right hand side of the page to view some typical adopter and potential adopter experiences, and how they overcame some of the barriers to adoption.