Could you adopt brothers and sisters and keep them together?
By Emma Johnson, PACT Adoption Team Manager
Almost half of children waiting for adoptive families need to be placed with their siblings and at PACT we want to encourage adopters to think about whether they can provide a family by adopting siblings, to enable brothers and sisters to remain together whenever possible.
Siblings have a shared story and can be a great support as they grow up together, but we also appreciate that they will each have their own different developmental needs and attachment histories and there can be challenges along the way.
PACT is dedicated to supporting its families through the lifetime of the adoption process and beyond; we also offer targeted additional support for sibling adoption before or after their children are placed.
PACT’s support services
Our services can include any (or all) of the following:
Therapeutic support
We can offer an early tailored one-off consultation for adopters adopting siblings, with a therapeutic social worker from our Strengthening Families Team (SFT). *Often just an initial consultation is enough, but further sessions can be provided if needed (usually between 4–6 max).
Education support
We can offer an early targeted consultation with our specialist education service for those families whose child/ren will be transitioning to a new school or nursery or who will be starting school or nursery shortly after placement. We can provide advice about what to look for when choosing a school or nursery and how to support a child to settle into school.
Peer support
We can offer an early consultation with one of our trained Adopter Champions who can provide informal peer support, information and advice before and/or after placement.
Support groups
Regular daytime informal support can be provided via our monthly virtual coffee mornings which are run by our Strengthening Families Team.
Regular virtual evening support groups are also available once per month and are run by our adoption support service.
Children’s activities
Regular virtual and in person activity events for children and their families are also run throughout the year led by our Adopter Champion team leader and PACT’s youth worker (e.g. interactive drama, dance, music and cooking sessions).
Financial support
PACT can help adoptive families apply for the Adoption Support Fund to provide therapeutic support to build family relationships between adopters and adopted siblings.
Online support
PACT adopters have free access to the Children And Trauma Community Hub to access tools and resources including specific training and resources regarding adopting siblings.
