PRESS RELEASE: New team to improve support for adopted children in North East and North Cumbria

Families with adopted children will have access to earlier support thanks to a new team announced today.

Three adoption agencies – Adopt North East, Adopt Coast to Coast and Adoption Tees Valley – have linked with NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) to secure funding for the new specialist team.

Almost £1 million in Department for Education funding will support a range of services for adopted children, young people, and their families and it will strengthen links with local health services.

Sadly, children may have suffered abuse or neglect before their adoption, and this can impact their education, friendships, and family life. The new team will work to speed up support assessments, with social workers, psychologists and other specialists working together to deliver an understanding of the support a child and their family may need.

The whole project is designed to reduce the impact of problems on children, by addressing them quicker and stopping them from escalating. It’ll do this by allowing families to access support earlier than they’d otherwise be able to.

Pete and his partner Chris adopted two children through Adoption Tees Valley, both of their children have additional needs and speaking of the announcement, Pete said: “Adopting our children has been an incredible journey and life changing for all four of us. The support we’ve received from Adoption Tees Valley has been valuable and has helped us enormously as a family. This additional funding and strengthening of early support for adoptive families is a welcome step forward, support that is available quickly, without huge delay is key to making sure adopted children can thrive and have the best start in life possible.”

Paula Gibbons, Head of Service for Adopt Coast to Coast said:

I am delighted that we have been successful in winning this bid alongside our local partners as it will help us to develop much needed support services for adoptive families across our region. We will also be consulting with our adoptive families to ensure we use their lived experiences to help us in developing and delivering the provisions which will benefit them the most.

Adopter Kerry’s daughters have benefitted from post adoption assessment and support and she said:

Our family has already benefitted from post-adoption support looking at attachment and building relationships, which is an area our daughters can struggle with as a result of their early life experiences.  While the support from Adopt Coast to Coast has been fantastic and the team  have offered us advice and training ever since our daughters joined our family, there simply isn’t enough resource on a national level to meet the needs of every adoptive family.  We wholeheartedly welcome the news of the new team and the additional regional services which will benefit even more adoptive families like us when they need it most.

As part of the Government’s national adoption strategy: Achieving excellence everywhere, Regional Adoption Agencies were invited to apply for funding for projects to improve the support available in adoption and to strengthen links with health services.

David Purdue, Executive Chief Nurse at NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), said:

Adoptive families make a huge contribution to the lives of children who often have a range of complex needs. From psychological support to help with speech and language, this new team can help with school, health and social care to ensure our most vulnerable children have the best possible start in life.

The team will include three social workers, two clinical psychologists and two occupational/speech and language therapists as well as a service manager. It will work with children between 4 and 11 years of age and their families who request adoption support with behaviours which may be indicative of neurodiversity, attachment and trauma issues and have resulted in difficulties in education, peer relations and the adoptive home and which, without intervention, are likely to escalate in severity and complexity.