Statement of Purpose

About Us

Our People

What People Say About Us

Working With Local Authorities

OFSTED

Statement of Purpose

Jobs

Statement of Purpose

This Statement of Purpose sets out Adoptionplus' aims and objectives. It explains our values and principles, the services we provide and the way we provide them.

The Statement of Purpose is intended to provide information to:-

People who use our service
Parents and carers
Adoptionplus staff
Local authorities
Birth family members
Other childcare organisations
Inspectors
Members of the public

This Statement of Purpose is regularly reviewed and updated at least every twelve months.

The information provided meets the requirement of National Minimum Standards for Adoption, and the related regulations (Voluntary Adoption Agencies and Adoption Agencies (Misc. Amendments) Regulations 2003).

Here is the Statement of Purpose:

Statement of Purpose

Adoptionplus is a specialist therapeutic adoption and permanence support agency. Our mission is to improve outcomes for children who are unable to live with their birth families by providing high-quality therapeutic, psychological and family support services to the adults who care for them and the professionals who support them.

We work with adopted children, fostered children, children living under Special Guardianship Orders, children in residential care, and their families and carers. We believe that children thrive when the adults around them are well supported, well informed and equipped to understand the impact of trauma, loss, attachment difficulties and adverse childhood experiences.

Our aim is to help children experience safe, nurturing and healing relationships that enable them to develop a positive self-esteem, a strong sense of identity and capacity for emotional resilience. We work to support families and carers create stable, nurturing environments where children feel safe, can flourish and reach their full potential. We also work with adopted adults to help them make sense of their history and promote their emotional health and wellbeing.

Alongside support to adopted children and adults, Adoptionplus also recognises the impact on birth relatives who experience separation from children through adoption. We aim to provide therapeutic support and counselling services that help birth parents and birth relatives understand their experiences, process loss and support emotional health and wellbeing.

As a registered adoption agency, Adoptionplus maintains expertise in adoption and permanence and remains committed to promoting best practice across all aspects of adoption support. Whilst our current operational focus is on therapeutic and support services rather than recruitment and placement activity, we retain the knowledge, governance arrangements and professional expertise necessary to deliver adoption agency functions should future service needs require this.

We recognise that adoption, fostering, special guardianship and other permanence and care arrangements have lifelong implications for children, families and carers. We are committed to ensuring that all those affected have access to specialist support that promotes healing, understanding and positive relationships.

Our Aims and Objectives

To improve outcomes for children living in adoptive, foster care, special guardianship and residential care settings through the provision of high-quality therapeutic support services.
To promote stability and wellbeing within families and caring relationships.
To ensure children and young people have access to services that recognise and respond to the impact of developmental and relational trauma
To provide specialist therapeutic, psychological and assessment services informed by current research, evidence and best practice.
To support adoptive parents, foster carers, special guardians, kinship carers and residential care providers in meeting the complex needs of children in their care.
To ensure our services promote equality, diversity and inclusion and do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion, culture, family structure or sexual orientation.
To involve children, young people, families and carers in the development and evaluation of our services.
To work collaboratively with local authorities, regional adoption agencies, schools, health services and other partners to improve outcomes for children and families.
To maintain specialist expertise in adoption and permanence support and, where required by future service developments, retain the capability to undertake adoption agency functions in accordance with relevant legislation and regulatory requirements.
To ensure all staff are appropriately qualified, experienced, supervised and supported in carrying out their responsibilities.
To maintain confidentiality, security and integrity of all records and informatiom

Services Provided by Adoptionplus

Adoptionplus currently provides:

Post-adoption support services
Therapeutic support for adoptive families
Therapeutic support for foster families
Therapeutic support for Special Guardians and kinship carers
Therapeutic support for children living in residential care
Developmental trauma and attachment assessments
Specialist attachment-based therapeutic interventions, including Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) and Theraplay®
Therapeutic Life Story Work
Therapeutic Parenting programmes
Consultation and support for professionals and teams
Counselling and therapeutic services for birth relatives
Adoption counselling for adopted adults
Counselling and support for adopters, foster carers and guardians
Therapeutic training for social workers, therapists, family support workers, residential care workers, youth workers and teachers
Bespoke integrated therapeutic services for local authorities
Training and consultation for residential care homes regarding developmental and relational trauma
relational trauma

Adoptionplus is not currently undertaking adopter recruitment or placement activity. However, as a registered adoption agency, Adoptionplus maintains the policies, governance arrangements and professional expertise required to undertake adoption agency functions and may review the future provision of recruitment, assessment and placement services in response to sector needs and strategic priorities.

Further information about our Therapy Service can be found here –

https://www.adoptionplus.co.uk/therapy-services

Reviewing the services we provide

Adoptionplus has a variety of systems in place to monitor and review the services we provide. These include:

Feedback forms completed after every 6th session by our Birth Relative Counselling Service clients.
Feedback forms from families (parents and children).
On-line Survey Monkey feedback from social workers, children and parents.
Feedback questionnaire responses from local authorities.
Internal evaluations.
Standardised mental health measures.
Local authority evaluations via quarterly reports.
Board analysis.

Complaints Procedure

A copy of the agency’s complaints procedure is available.

If you wish to make a formal complaint please contact Joanne Alper, Director, at joanne@adoptionplus.co.uk or 01908 218251

Registration Authority

The name and address of the Registration Authority is:

OFSTED

Piccadilly Gate

Store Street

Manchester

M1 2WD

Email: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk Tel: 0300 123 1231 Web: www.ofsted.gov.uk

The Statement of Purpose can be supplied in different formats appropriate to the physical, sensory and learning impairment, communication difficulties and language of all those who may need to read it. Translations can be provided; MP3 players can be made available.

The Statement of Purpose has been approved by the Directors of Adoptionplus and is subject to review annually, or earlier if required.

Updated 10 July 2026