Adopting is about making a real difference to a child’s life. When you adopt, you provide a secure, loving home to a child – for life! Like all parenting, it means sticking with it through good times and bad. It is one of the most challenging, but also one of the most rewarding, things you can do.

If you think adoption could be for you, read on to find out more.

Adoption is a lifelong commitment. It is about providing a permanent family for a child in care, who cannot, for whatever reason, return home. When you want to adopt a child, you become their parent. It’s a way of providing a stable and secure family life that makes adoption a positive choice for children.

Cambridgeshire County Council will work together towards you being approved as an adoptive parent and match you with a child. After the child comes to live with you and is settled into your family, an Adoption Order will be made. At this time the child will usually take on your surname, and will end all legal ties the child has with their birth family – they cannot take him or her back after the order has been granted.

Like any parent, you will care for the child into early adulthood ad beyond. Help and support is available, as you need it.