Welcome to Aberdeen City Council’s Adoption pages. We know that potential adopters come to us from a range of backgrounds with a variety of child care experience, who will have a number of questions, and we hope the following information can provide some of those answers.
Our Ethos: We are a family focused Service which keeps children at the forefront of our thinking and doing.
Who are we? We are a group of social work professionals, with a wealth of experience, who are passionate about the children and families we serve. We work closely with other social work teams across the Council who have responsibility for the care and protection of vulnerable children, and we also work closely with our partner agencies across Scotland and the wider UK, to help meet the needs of our adoptive families.
What do we do? The Team is responsible for all things adoption related, such as:
- Finding families for the children with in Aberdeen City who require the stability and security that adoption provides.
- The assessment, training and support of prospective adopters from the earliest point in the adoption process through to matching with children, the adoption order and beyond.
- We provide a person-centred counselling approach to supporting adoptees seeking to access their information or wishing to re-connect with their birth family.
- We provide therapeutic support to those adoptive parents who might be struggling to meet their child’s needs, or who are unsure about how to talk to their child about their adoption.
Step-Parent Adoptions:
- Our Service also undertakes assessments of step-parents who wish to adopt and we will provide a report to the Sheriff’s Court on the suitability of the step-parent as an adoptive parent.
- If you are a step-parent wishing to adopt, you can contact us directly to notify us of your intention or via your legal representative. Please note the Service can also be instructed to provide a report on your suitability by the Sheriff Court.
- The team will help you understand what is involved in the process for step-parent adoptions, as the process differs considerably from the process from that which is outlined below.
What does adoption mean? Adoption is a legal, life-long commitment which offers children who are unable to live with their birth family the opportunity to grow up in a family where they can feel safe, secure and be provided with the stability they require to thrive.
