Think Siblings: findings from a national survey of adopters

Coram’s Impact and Evaluation team created an online survey for adopters in January 2017. The survey link was sent to adopters via Adoption UK, Coram and First4Adoption. There were 414 responses. All English regions were represented in the survey along with respondents living in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This report presents the findings from the survey.

Key findings

  • Over half (57% or 80 out of 140) of the prospective adopters who responded to the survey said that they were considering adopting children in a sibling group. Three quarters held the view that adopting children in a sibling group would be more challenging than adopting a single child.
  • 43% (60) of prospective adopters said that they were not or were not sure if they were going to adopt siblings. Most of these also held the view that adopting siblings would be more challenging.
  • 200 adopters who responded to the survey had adopted children in a sibling group. 84% believed that adopting children in a sibling group was more challenging than adopting a single child.