Choosing Our Adoption Agency

When we decided to take that first step into the world of adoption we had no idea how we would chose the right agency for us.

There are SO many choices, all of which have their pros and cons, and all of which just want to help children find a loving home. We worried that saying 'yes' to an agency might not be the problem, the problem might actual be saying 'no'!

With that in mind, you probably won't be shocked to learn that the agency we chose was the very first one we spoke to... but we promise we didn't just say 'yes' after one call!

Over the course of around 2 months, we met with a number of agencies. Some council based agencies, and some voluntary adoption agencies.

For those of you that don't know, every child that is up for adoption is looked after by their local council, normally within the foster care system. When you adopt through the council, you are working directly with the people that have parental responsibility of children in care, and will only be able to adopt a child that is looked after by them. Voluntary adoption agencies on the other hand don't have any children in their care. Their focus is on the adopter, and working with a huge variety of councils, they are able to match their adopters with children that are in council care across the whole of the UK.

So, this first call we had with the very first agency, there was just something about it that felt good, felt right for us. Leigh, the lady who ran the call, took us through the whole adoption process and told us about the agency in a way that was very real and honest. There was no sugarcoating the challenging aspects of adoption, but the whole thing still felt very positive and left us feeling very excited. Being the first call though, we didn't want to be hasty. We assumed that all of the agency introduction calls would be like that because in a lot of ways, they're trying to sell themselves to you. But they weren't.

None of the other calls compared to that first one. Most of them were perfectly nice. One of them made a comment about 'wanting to find mummies and daddies for children' which, as an LGBTQIA+ couple, was an instant write off for us. But none of them gave us the feeling that the first agency did.

At the start of October 2023, we made contact with that first agency again to have another conversation and to just make sure we were completely sure about the decision we were about to make.

On October 24th 2023, on Robyn's birthday, we received our official Registration of Interest for Adoption Focus, a voluntary adoption agency, the very first agency we spoke to, and the agency that we have chosen to go on this journey with.

We submitted the forms on November 7th 2023, and on November 8th, the day we got engaged, we were accepted by the agency and our first social worker visit was booked.

So, what made Adoption Focus so special?

Well, like we said, the feeling we got from that first call was just undeniable. But don't worry, we didn't base one of the biggest decisions of our lives on feeling alone! Here are some of the other reasons we decided Adoption Focus was the right choice for us...

• They've been rated outstanding by Ofsted each of the 4 times they've been assessed.

• They have been active members of New Family Social for more than 10 years, the UK's LGBTQIA+ adoption and fostering charity, with who they have completed a huge amount of optional training, including everything they need to support transgender and non-binary adopters.

• As a voluntary adoption agency, they work with council agencies across the UK.

• They don't just offer training to the adopters, but to family members and friends too.

• They offer free membership to New Family Social Gold, SafeBase and

• They have a unique 'buddy scheme' which connects new adopters with experienced adopters for extra support.

• They offer lifelong support to the families they work with.

• They 99% of their adopters have been approved at panel first time, and they won't put anyone forward to panel that they believe is not yet ready.

Some of you will be introduced to Adoption Focus throughout our journey, because of references, training, or any number of reasons, and we're certain that you will also see in them what we did on that very first call.

We're so incredibly excited to have them with us on this journey!

If you'd like to learn more about Adoption Focus, check out their website.

That's all for now,

Robyn and Evie x