Regional adoption agency will open up a wider pool of adopters and children across South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire Regional Adoption Agency will benefit children and their adoptive families through improving access to a wider pool of adopters and children, as well as providing more timely matching, and consistent and comprehensive adoption support services across the region.

The move, which is set to be agreed at Cabinet next week, follows guidance from the Department for Education that all local authorities should be part of a regional adoption agency by 2020.

The agency will look to provide as many children and young people as they can with adoption placements each year from January 2021.

Councillor Jackie Drayton, Cabinet Member for Children and Families said: “The South Yorkshire Regional Adoption Agency is a wonderful opportunity to work in partnership with our colleagues in Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster Councils. By establishing a single agency, Sheffield, and the other Authorities, will bring our resources together and help and support more children and young people, and prospective adopters across South Yorkshire find their forever families.

“This year we need more people than ever to come forward and adopt the children and young people currently in our care, to give them the love and stability that every child deserves.

“Please get in touch if you think you can make a young life a happy life."

Adopting a child is a life-changing decision for everyone involved. It gives you the opportunity to provide a warm and loving home to a child or children who really need it. It also means you get to experience the joy of raising a child and building or expanding your own family.

If you choose to adopt, you’ll provide a permanent family for a child or children who can’t be brought up by their birth families. It is a legal process in which parental responsibility is permanently transferred to you as the adoptive parent.

For more information please visit the website https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/adoptionor call 0114 273 5010.

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