Adopt Thames Valley’s innovative Anchor Team has transformed adoption and special guardianship support across the region, helping more than 140 families since its launch in February 2024 — and setting a new standard for timely, therapeutic care.
Funded by Adoption England (with grant funding from the Department for Education) and developed in consultation with families, Anchor’s multi-disciplinary team provides specialist therapeutic support for adoptive families across Berkshire and Swindon.
The team, made up of highly-skilled psychologists, social care practitioners, an educational psychologist, and an occupational therapist, has achieved something remarkable within the adoption sector and families can now access an assessment within two weeks of their first contact. In a field where lengthy waiting lists have long been a challenge and families have often been unable to access the support they need, Anchor is ensuring that help is available when it’s needed most and therefore reducing the chances of family breakdown or crisis.
Not only are families accessing help and support quicker, but they are also being offered a more tailored and family centred approach thanks to the experienced multi-disciplinary team. Once referred and assessed, families can benefit from a range of therapeutic approaches including Dyadic Developmental Psychology (DDP), Video Interactive Guidance (VIG) therapy, Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Theraplay as part of their core therapies.
Adopt Thames Valley (ATV) is also finding that the number of referrals to the Permanence Support Team are now reducing, and this is largely down to families receiving more timely support and social workers being freed up from completing lengthy assessments, enabling them to practice high quality social work within their community.
The Anchor Team deliberately has a low threshold for access, and referrals are taken from teams across the area to ensure as many families as possible can benefit from the service. The team offers a single point of access as opposed to the traditional fragmentation of services that families might experience, and have a strong focus on early intervention and prevention alongside work at points of crisis.
One family who have been supported by the Anchor Team said: “The work we have done with the Anchor therapist has made a fundamental difference to our family life [..] we feel better equipped to manage the difficult situations when they arise. We would recommend the service to others.”
Another family said: “We are now more confident in advocating for our child with the school and in knowing what to do and say to help her at home now. It’s been life changing. Thank you so much.”
Currently the Anchor specialists are working with children when they have been placed with an adoptive family, but the team feel passionately that they can also do so before children move in with their new family, to better understand children’s needs and therefore help improve outcomes for the child and their future adoptive family. Another benefit that has arisen from developing an in-house therapy team has been the move to incorporate ATV’s small multi-disciplinary Matching Hub team, originally established two years ago, within Anchor to support the process around matching children who may be harder to find a family for.
Justine Manning, Anchor Service Manager said: “We know that timely support can make all the difference for children and families adjusting to adoption or special guardianship. By removing waiting times, providing a single point of access so families only have to tell their story once, and offering direct access to high-quality, highly skilled specialists, we’ve been able to help families stabilise placements, strengthen relationships, and improve outcomes for children far more effectively.”
The Anchor Team’s approach is rooted in an understanding of trauma, attachment, and therapeutic parenting. Each family receives personalised, holistic support designed to meet emotional, behavioural, educational, and sensory needs. The team also provides consultation and training for professionals, ensuring a consistent and trauma-informed approach across services.
Justine continued: “The Anchor Team has revolutionised adoption support in our region and we’re sure this could be replicated across the country. What we’re doing by offering a more family focussed service is not only reducing waiting times but also helping to reduce costs, reduce chances of family breakdown and improve outcomes for children and their families. This early, joined-up intervention is keeping families together and helping children thrive.”
The service has been designed and developed with families to ensure it meets the needs of those it serves. The Responsibility Group is a group of parents who have acted as a critical friend to the Anchor Team, holding them to account and ensuring the service continues to develop with families at its heart.
Teresa Rogers, Head of Service, Adopt Thames Valley, said: “The Anchor team has greatly enhanced our support offer providing high quality, cost effective, accessible and specialist multi-disciplinary therapeutic support to families when they need it. The impact and benefits of this team have been felt not just by those who have received a service but also by professionals working across ATV and in partner agencies.”
Sarah Johal MBE, National Adoption Strategic Lead, Adoption England, said: “The Anchor Team is a transformational case where we’re seeing this innovative in-house approach to adoption support making a huge difference to people’s lives. Because of the way they’re working together they have an increased capacity and ability to meet the needs of their families, and with all of the skillsets around their table, they’re able to create care plans more effectively and that are designed to support the whole family, not just the child or young person.
She continued: “They’ve achieved a huge amount in less than two years and this is reflected in the positive feedback they’re receiving from families.”
Key Achievements
- Over 140 families supported since the team’s inception
- No waiting lists for therapeutic consultation
- Initial consultation within two weeks of contact
- Integrated multi-disciplinary model combining psychology, education, and occupational therapy
- Improved stability and wellbeing for adoptive and special guardianship families
- In house training, consultation and reflected practice creating a psychologically and trauma informed workforce
For more information, visit https://adoptthamesvalley.co.uk/the-anchor-team/.
The Anchor Team has been developed by Adopt Thames Valley (ATV) with funding from Adoption England. The Department for Education (DfE) provides grant funding to Adoption England to improve the recruitment of adopters, matching of families and adoption support and this programme of work was established to build on the development of multidisciplinary approaches to adoption support. The approach encourages Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) teams to develop partnerships with health partners and education providers to enable and improve pathways for children and young people to access the right support at the right time and improve the quality, availability and timeliness of specialist assessments.