The Adoption and Children’s Act 2002 is the statutory instrument that provides the framework for the Adoption Support Regulations 2005 which recognises the importance of providing services to the widening pool of adopters who adopt children with special needs as well as the children who they adopt.
The Cambridgeshire Adoption Support Team is required to provide the following services under the Act.
- Financial support
- Support Groups to adoptive families, birth parents and guardians.
- Assistance with contact, including mediation services
- Therapeutic services for adoptive children
- Assistance to ensure continuance of the adoptive relationship, including training to meet special needs of the child and respite care
- Assistance with the disruption of an adoptive placement
- Counselling advice and information.
Cambridgeshire is also required to provide an Adoption Support Services Advisor who is available to assist:
- Adoptive children
- Adoptive parents and their natural children
- Birth relatives
- Intercountry adopters and their children
- Natural siblings of an adoptive child
- Special guardians and the children placed with them
- Prospective adopters
- Adopted Adults, their parents, birth parents and former guardians
- Relatives or significant others with whom the local authority considers the child to have a beneficial relationship.
The Adoption Support Team Manager and Adoption Support Services Adviser is Ricky Cooper. You may inquire about Adoption Support Services by ringing the Freephone enquiry number at 0800 052 0078.