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Adoption Partnership South East improves outcomes for sibling groups and adoptive families

Adoption Partnership South East has been able to improve outcomes for siblings across the region by advocating for better quality sibling assessments, providing specialist training for social workers and creating peer support for adoptive families, thanks to a grant from Adoption England.

 

Adoption Partnership South East is the regional adoption agency (RAA), delivering adoption services for the London Borough of Bexley, Kent County Council, and Medway Council. The team identified a need for better support for adoptive brothers and sisters and potential adopters, as not only do sibling groups wait longer for adoption, but adoptive parents also require more support to ensure they are prepared for the additional requirements of committing to siblings, or adopting a child who is part of a sibling group that are not living together. 

 

Amy Coombs, Head of Adoption Partnership South East, said: “As part of our work to improve matching and family finding for adoptive children, we decided to focus on sibling groups as siblings often wait longer than other children to be adopted. On top of that, there is a general assumption that siblings should be adopted together, but this isn’t always the best outcome for those children and their respective adoptive parents. We know just how important it is for each child and sibling group to be assessed on their own unique needs so that the best outcome for those children is reached.

 

She continued: “For that reason, we decided to use our grant funding to recruit a dedicated lead to support social workers when completing Together or Apart sibling assessments for sibling groups to make sure the right decisions are being made at the earliest possible stage. In addition, we were able to fund training for social workers through Coram BAAF to ensure assessments are being filled out consistently, to a high standard and encouraging a multidisciplinary team approach to capture a range of voices and professional opinions.

We’ve also worked with Adoption UK to create training opportunities for potential adoptive parents and a peer support course too, allowing potential adopters to really understand the unique challenge and opportunities that come with adopting siblings.”

The work Adoption Partnership South East has delivered has taken place between October 2022 and March 2025 and has resulted in social workers across the region being empowered to carry out more accurate assessments to make early, evidence -based and informed decisions based on the needs of the child/ren. The team has also been able to improve recruitment of adopters for sibling groups, providing those interested with tailored support and advice from an early stage in the process. 

One potential adopter said: “The training was an incredibly valuable day; it furthered our understanding of adopting siblings and will help to guide our considerations.” Another potential adopter said: ““The training as a whole, coupled with the real-life stories of the two adopter families, which experiences both sibling adoption and sequential adoption, gave us a good insight into sibling adoption and provided us with detailed information to help us make an informed decision as to whether sibling adoption is something for us.”

Feedback on the peer support course has also been hugely positive, with one social worker saying: “they [potential adopters] spoke highly of the supporting siblings peer group you are running. They said so far, they feel it is really useful and relevant for them, reassuring to hear other people’s experiences, share their own experiences, and gathering ideas in supporting the girls. They hope to build friendships with those group members attending.”

Key achievements

  • An increase of timely, comprehensive Together or Apart sibling assessments being undertaken
  • Dedicated lead for sibling assessments to support social workers and carry out more complex assessments where necessary
  • Specialist training for social workers provided by Coram BAAF to improve quality of Together or Apart assessments
  • Training for potential adopters provided by Adoption UK to help them understand the challenges and joy of adopting siblings
  • Peer support course for adopters, provided by Adoption UK to improve ongoing support
  • Dyadic Developmental Practice and Psychotherapy (DDP) Levels 1&2 training for social workers to ensure the needs of siblings are identified at an early stage and appropriate support is provided to children, carers and adopters by the professional network
  • Improved recruitment for adoptive families for sibling groups
  • 43 adopter households approved at panel for siblings between September 2022 – March 2025
  • 49 children matched with at least one sibling, from a total of 211 children matched between September 2022 – March 2025

Amy continued: “We know through feedback from families that they feel a lot more supported through their decisions on whether to continue with sibling adoption, and staff feel better equipped to make the right decisions. What’s brilliant about this work is that it’s been designed to be sustainable, so we now have access to these courses and peer group content and will continue offering these provisions to potential adopters to improve outcomes for children and families in the future.”

Sarah Johal, Adoption England Strategic Lead, said: “Understandably, whilst there is a desire for brothers and sisters to grow up together, for some children this isn’t always the best choice, for a variety of reasons, depending on their individual situations. What the team at Adoption Partnership South East have been able to achieve with this grant is to allow social workers to advocate for the needs of each child and sibling group, to ensure the decision that’s made about their future is one that’s right for them. 

She continued: “It’s great to see that it doesn’t stop there, and they have also put in place better support for brothers and sisters that aren’t placed together so that they can stay in touch with their family, and improved ongoing support for adoptive parents of siblings. It’s crucial for the success of adoptive families that adoptive parents are aware of the commitment they’re making, and this work is demonstrating how powerful it is for families to hear honest, first-hand experiences from other adoptive families about the real highs and lows of adoption, but ultimately the happiness it can bring to people’s lives.”