Dates: November 2018 - November 2020
Research Team: Prof Beth Neil, Julie Young
Funder: One Adoption West Yorkshire
Many adopted children need ongoing help, and adoption agencies have responsibilities for assessing what support children and their adoptive families may need both before children are adopted, and after the adoption order when families request help. The regional adoption agency One Adoption West Yorkshire (OAWY) were awarded government funding in 2017 to establish a ‘Centre for Excellence’ programme of co-ordinated assessment, treatment and therapeutic support for adopted children and children in care. One Adoption West Yorkshire initiated the changes in their area with their new standardised assessment framework for adoption support becoming active in March 2019.
The UEA research team were brought in help evaluate the impact of the changes. The process began with the team’s previous research (2016-18) which surveyed adoptive parents in the region to provide insight into the needs of adopted children, outcomes of adoption for children and families and families’ experiences of using support services.
Impact
A report, research briefing and presentation of the findings will be provided at the end of the project to OAWY to inform policy and practice.