If you are a professional interested in adoption
General information about the adoption service
The Essex Adoption Service is a discreet service within the Schools, Children and Families Directorate.It is one of the largest adoption services in the United Kingdom.
Essex County Council was awarded Beacon Status for its Adoption Service in 2002-2003.
There are four adoption teams covering the county, comprising a team manager, social workers, outreach workers and business support staff.
We are committed to working in partnership with other agencies to provide a comprehensive range of services for everyone whose lives are touched by adoption. Essex enjoys particularly good relationships with BAAF, Adoption UK, Barnardos LINK, and other adoption agencies, particularly the East Anglian Consortium Network, of which Essex is a member.
Adoption teams in Essex
There are four adoption teams in Essex as follows:
There are two locality teams South West Adoption Team who have offices in Harlow and Basildon and North East Adoption Team with an office in Colchester. These teams have a remit for:
- Family finding for children aged 0 - 4 years, either single children or sibling groups of two. Joint working with the children's social worker to prepare children for adoption
- Assessing and preparing prospective adopters
- Matching and placing children with suitable adopters and supporting the placement until an Adoption Order is made.
The Family Finders Adoption team based in Chelmsford has a countywide remit for:
- Family finding for single children over 4 years and sibling groups of three or more
- Sibling assessments for children being placed for adoption
- Life story work
- Specialist family finding
- Inter-country Adoption
- Step-parent adoption adopter assessments
The Post Adoption Team, based in Chelmsford has a countywide remit for:
- Post adoption services to families who have been affected by adoption.
- Schedule 2 counselling for those seeking information on their birth records.
- Intermediary Services for birth relatives and adopted adults who wish to make contact with each other.
- The Letterbox Contact Scheme.
- Archiving of all adoption records.
There are three adoption panels across the county each meeting twice monthly. All the panels are chaired by the same independent chair.
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