adoption and permanent families services
Coram's Adoption and Permanent Families Service is the third largest voluntary agency in the county. Coram places and supports children with complex needs, who are looked after by local authorities. We help children to develop stable attachments within emotionally nurturing adoptive/permanent families. The service provides counseling and support to adults whose lives have been affected by adoption or other permanent placements as well as training and consultation for complex cases.
Adoption
One of the UK’s leading adoption agencies, Coram Adoption Service has three offices in London, East Anglia and the East Midlands. All offer a family placement service for children who are looked after by local authorities. For full details see Information for adopters. Many of the children we place are of school age, and we offer ongoing support to help them cope with the after affects of their difficult early experiences. We also place pre-school children often from families with a history of mental illness or substance abuse.
Concurrent Planning
Coram was one of the first three agencies in the UK to introduce a programme which aims to speed up successful permanent family placements for children involved in court proceedings. We recruit specialist foster families to look after children whilst their parents and relatives are assessed to decide whether they can safely return home. If this is not possible, the foster family will adopt the child, avoiding further damaging moves.
Placement needs of black, minority and ethnic children
Coram has an active and successful programme to recruit adoptive families, from Black, Ethnic Minority and mixed heritage backgrounds for children and babies from similar backgrounds who need the security of adoption. Wherever possible we believe children can grow up more comfortably and with a better sense of their identity with families who reflect the ethnicity, race and religion of their birth family.
Ongoing Support
We provide ongoing professional support to adoptive families throughout childhood and into adulthood. This includes support groups for adopted children of all ages, parenting skills training for adoptive parents, counseling, advice, and access to specialist advisors and referrals to community services for specialist help.
Children affected by HIV
Coram established the first specialist service in the South East to find appropriate family placements for children affected by HIV/AIDS and continues to offer a service to children and families from Sub-Saharan Africa.
Research on Attachment in Adoption
A research study looking at how adopted children establish attachments with their new parents was jointly undertaken by Coram, the Anna Freud Centre and Great Ormond Street Hospital. The research focused on the particular difficulties adopters and their children face in building attachments and informs the development of new ways of supporting adoptive families.
Birth records counseling
Coram offers a counselling service to adults who were adopted through Coram and to former pupils of the Foundling Hospital. Further information about former pupils can be found through the Old Coram Association.
For further information contact Gillian Dyer 020 7520 0383 gillian.dyer@coram.org.uk.
concurrent planning
Coram’s concurrent planning project places babies and children under two years... more
information for adopters
Coram Adoption and Permanent Families Service aims to offer loving and secure... more
