£2.3million boost for adoption support in Wales

Today (June 6), National Adoption Service in Wales (NAS) and Adoption UK Cymru (AUK) announced a £2.3 million Welsh Government investment for adoption support services in Wales.

At an event held at the Senedd attended by key people from the sector, the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services, Julie Morgan confirmed the funding and also officially launched the new ‘Adoption Register Wales’.

The £2.3m investment is to be spent through NAS’ five regions across Wales to strengthen adoption support services, enhance staff levels and improve ways of working in key areas of support for adoptive families.

The new register is an essential part of the matching process in many adoptions and will support prompt family finding. No longer just for children who’ve been waiting the longest, but for all children with an adoption plan in Wales, the register gives adopters more say in their family finding.

Suzanne Griffiths, Director of Operations for the National Adoption Service, said: “The new register supports our commitment to the best possible family finding and matching for children and adopters. It is a bilingual service making it more inclusive and also gives adopters supported access to view children’s profiles and make decisions, with the support of their Social Worker.”

Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services, Julie Morgan said: “As a Government we are investing money to strengthen adoption services in Wales. Working collaboratively with key organisations to use this funding to provide those being adopted and adopters with the right support. As well as ensuring that adoptive families can be found more quickly, this funding will enable the adoption regions to improve further the provision of adoption support services in their area.”

Suzanne Griffiths added: “This investment is such a boost to our work to improve the support available to adoptive families across Wales. Improving services, and particularly support services, was one of the biggest challenges facing the National Adoption Service when it was created.

“We have already made many improvements through our local government regional services, but this funding will enable us to ensure there are improved services available consistently to families across Wales as well as providing, in partnership with the third sector, exciting new services such as TESSA and a new children and young people’s service”.

Part of the investment has also been used to match fund an additional £250,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund, granted to AUK to deliver its Therapeutic Education Support Services in Adoption programme (TESSA).

Ann Bell, Development Manager, AUK Cymru, said: “Adoption UK is delighted to be working with the National Lottery to extend the TESSA programme across United Kingdom. TESSA gives an adoptive family access to a clinical psychologist and an experienced adopter, giving them coping strategies and an insight into how other parents have worked through challenges to help their family flourish.

“Early intervention is crucial to successful adoptions and TESSA has proved extremely effective in Northern Ireland, with adoptive families saying what a huge difference it has made to them. The additional funding from Welsh Government will significantly increase the scale and reach of TESSA in Wales, making it more widely available to new adoptive families.”

If you are interested in adoption and would like more information, visit adoptionmwwales.org.uk

For those currently adopting, you can find out more about the support for you and your child at adoptionuk.org