Almost 100 Adopted Children Successfully Matched Through Adopt Thames Valley’s Multi-Disciplinary Matching Hub

Adopt Thames Valley’s (ATV) innovative Multi-disciplinary Matching Hub (MMH), designed to strengthen family finding and matching for children with more complex or specialist needs, has supported 92 children since its launch in April 2023, and is demonstrating significant benefits for adoption practice both locally and nationally.

The Hub, which is funded through Adoption England’s Matching Grant Programme and sits within Adopt Thames Valley’s multi-disciplinary Anchor Team, was established to improve decision making, matching and support for adoptive children and families, and particularly those with specialist or complex needs, and those waiting longer for adoption. 

Due to social and economic pressures, adoption teams across the country are witnessing greater complexity of needs surrounding adopted children and families. These needs are often not fully understood at the point of family finding, which can create uncertainty for professionals and prospective adopters and lead to delays or disrupted placements.

To address this challenge, ATV has created a specialist team made up of a senior social worker, clinical psychologist, and educational psychologist. Together, they provide a dedicated multi-disciplinary resource to deepen understanding of children’s histories, needs, strengths, and potential support requirements and help to support social workers, foster carers and prospective families in making decisions about a child’s future.

Justine Manning, Anchor Service Manager at Adopt Thames Valley, said: “The work of our matching hub is helping us to make the right decisions early in the adoption process, not just for children but for adoptive families too. The hub sits within our multi-disciplinary Anchor team meaning that we can offer a therapeutic service through the entirety of an adoption journey, from matching and placement through to post-adoption support. This approach is enabling us to build long-lasting relationships with children and families to help ensure the stability of placements and provides consistency of care. It is an innovative approach to matching within a current societal and economic climate that is proving difficult for families. We are focussing on understanding the needs of the child or children.

She continued: “The team within the hub might be small, but we’ve supported almost 100 families to date since our inception and have now secured permanent funding so the hub can continue to provide matching support across the region. The team works with children and adopters, as well as the network of professionals and foster carers around them. Matching Hub has a huge reach well beyond the child and their family, and we know from the feedback we are receiving it is having a positive impact on matching decisions, introductions and early stability and relationship building within adoptive families.”

A new approach to matching

The Multi-disciplinary Matching Hub offers two core interventions:

  • Multi-disciplinary formulation meetings, which help practitioners reflect on children’s needs in-depth and guide family finding.
  • Consultation meetings, focused on specific questions about potential matches and support planning for children and prospective adopters.

The team has also created training and resources for adopters and professionals, covering topics such as supporting children with trauma histories, managing aggression and violent behaviour, parenting a child who has experienced sexual abuse, transitions in education during the adoption process, hearing children’s views on adoption, engaging young people with complex needs or who are neurodivergent and understanding developmental and emotional needs.

Positive impact across Adopt Thames Valley

Interviews with staff involved in the project highlight broad and significant benefits:

  • Improved confidence and decision-making, giving practitioners space to reflect on complex cases.
  • A move towards more systemic, holistic practice.
  • Challenging assumptions about children considered “too complex” and opening up new matching possibilities.
  • Strengthened collaboration and communication across teams, supported by a shared language and neutral, reflective space.
  • Enhanced professional wellbeing, with the Hub offering space to process challenging circumstances and learning from disruptions for children.

Feedback from professionals includes: “It has really shaped the way we have planned transitions for multiple new adoptive families. The impact has been really positive.” 

 

“We have many meetings in relation to the children which fulfil different purposes so a meeting with professionals looking in from the outside with a focus primarily on matching for adoption was invaluable. Also, having different perspective from professionals with different experience and areas of expertise brought a different perspective to some of the information.”

 

“A number of the social workers who attended [the training] have already reflected to me that they are approaching their direct work with children differently as a result, so that is what we hoped for.”

“The support offered prior to the transition was pivotal in our planning, thinking and reflections, and would have contributed to the success [of the placement].”

A recent study showed that 86% of ATV social workers consulted said that they or their families had used the wider multi-disciplinary services of the hub, including training, as well as formulation meetings. In addition, an evaluation of the Hub carried out by a Trainee Clinical Psychologist at the University of Oxford reported: “All social workers identified that the Matching Hub was a key support around the matching process. Social workers reported they particularly valued the multi-disciplinary approach which appeared to help develop different perspectives on complex cases”.

Teresa Rogers, Head of Service at Adopt Thames Valley said: “The project has demonstrated that multi-disciplinary expertise is central to improving matching practice, particularly for children with complex or higher levels of need. We are delighted that following a successful pilot, we have managed to retain this team which has contributed to a number of successful matches for children with additional needs with ATV adopters.”

Sarah Johal, National Adoption Strategic Lead at Adoption England said: “This work by the team at Adopt Thames Valley both within the Hub and within the Anchor Team is exemplary. It’s clear to see that outcomes are not only improving for families, but that professionals are better equipped to make the right decisions. It’s so important for the sector that we’re making needs-led decisions for both children and prospective adopters. If we can get these decisions right early-on in the adoption process then we can provide better support, create more stable families and improve the adoption journey for the whole family. With strong early outcomes and high levels of professional engagement, this multi-disciplinary approach to matching, embedded within the wider adoption support team, offers a promising model for other regions seeking to improve outcomes for children with complex or multiple needs.”