Adopting siblings with Family Care

In the UK, 61% of children waiting to be adopted are in sibling groups of two or more and need to be adopted with their brothers or sisters. On average, siblings wait longer in care before being adopted than single children do.

FCAS is committed to finding families for the children who wait the longest in care and reducing the wait for siblings who need new adoptive families.

Could you adopt more than one child?

If you are adopting for the first time, maybe you have assumed you will be placed with a single child into your family first…maybe you have thought about adopting siblings, but felt that it might be too difficult or overwhelming.

At FCAS, we talk to everyone who is considering adoption to think about whether they could parent siblings…We know that that having more than one child comes with real challenges and will require commitment and energy. But it also has advantages and brings great rewards…

 Better for you….

• If you think that you would eventually want to have more than one child in your family, adopting a sibling group means you will only have to go through the assessment, training and approval process once.
• If you adopt siblings together, it is usually an easier ‘match’ than placing a second biologically unrelated child into your family later.
• If you adopt siblings, they already have an established bond and relationship with each other.
• Sibling groups are often a wee bit older than single children, which means that you will know more about any health or other issues that your children may face as they grow up.
• This can help you as new adoptive parents to be more prepared and get access to appropriate support for your children straight away.

  Better for your children….

• It is often in the best interests of children in sibling groups that they find a family together, and not face the further trauma of being separated from their brothers and sisters.
• If children come from birth families where they have suffered abuse or neglect, their bond with a sibling can be particularly strong.
• By adopting siblings, you are allowing your children to hold onto the brother or sister who has been with them throughout their difficult start in life.
• Siblings coming together into your family each other to help them to adjust and learn to trust you.

Siblings who have a shared past may be the only ones who remember or have been affected by their history. This often means they will be able to offer each other special support and emotional security through their ups and downs, and will always have someone in their lives who understands what they’ve been through.

It takes special kinds of people to adopt more than one child at a time, but there are special kinds of children who need new families together.

 

If you’d like to talk further about adopting a sibling group of two or more children, please  CONTACT US

We will be delighted to talk to you and answer your questions.

 

 

Looking for a new job? Our Life Story Team are Recruiting!!

Family Care Adoption Services has been funded by the National Lottery Community Fund to provide a five year Life Story Service to young people in and from care until 2nd June 2024, and we are recruiting for a FULL TIME PROJECT WORKER to join our Team:

Main duties of the post:

To work as part of the Project Team in delivering a Life Story service to young people referred to the Project across Northern Ireland.

To compile information from statutory files and reports, and record family background and other material in relation to young people referred to the project, who have been adopted, fostered or raised in care.

To undertake direct, structured sessions with these young people and their families, to share the information gathered, and help them to explore and understand their personal history, at an age-appropriate level.

To engage with birth families, previous carers, significant others and referrers in a supportive and participative manner.

To create and publish a bespoke Life Story Book for each young person, as a record of the information gathered and sessions undertaken.

To participate in the operation of the young advocates component of the Life Story Project, and support participants to take the lead.

To liaise with referring agencies as appropriate.

For additional responsibilities please see JOB DESCRIPTION & SPECIFICATION

Qualifications & Experience

Minimum Level 4 NVQ/CACHE Qualification in working with Children / Families / Young People; or Level 5 Diploma/ BTEC/HNC/HND in Children’s Care/ Early Years; or Degree in Social Work/ Early Childhood Studies / Youth & Childhood Studies.

Minimum of two years experience in last five years in direct work with young people and families.

Registered with NISCC.

For additional requirements please see JOB DESCRIPTION & SPECIFICATION

APPLICATIONS CLOSE THURSDAY 12th AUGUST at 4.00PM

INTERVIEWS WILL BE HELD FRIDAY 20th AUGUST 

APPLICATION FORM – FT Project Worker- Life Story Project

Monitoring Form

APPLICATION-FORM-FT-Project-Worker-Life-Story-Project-1

Monitoring Form

 

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic Family Care Adoption Services like other charities was obliged to close its offices on 24^th March 2020.

While the Agency has therefore not been directly accessible to the public, staff have been very committed in continuing to engage with service users remotely and have endeavoured to continue to provide services as far and as normally as possible in this unique and very challenging situation.

As the pandemic situation has developed however and Government guidance has made it clear that we will not be able to re-open our offices in the immediate future, the Board of Directors has had to consider its responsibilities to conserve the resources and secure the longer term future of the Agency.

It is with great regret therefore that the Board of Directors has made the decision to furlough Social Work and Project staff beginning on 4^th May 2020. This is initially for the month of May and will be for as short a period as possible.

In order to ensure that this is kept under close review, the Board will meet to consider the unfolding situation every three weeks. Limited management and administration personnel will continue to be in place within the Agency in the meantime and will provide a point for urgent contact.

The Board and Staff of Family Care Adoption Services are motivated by the desire to provide a comprehensive range of professional and appropriate Adoption services across Northern Ireland and we very much regret the need to take this decision at this time.  

We appreciate your support and would like to thank you for your understanding during this very difficult period.

Marie Frawley

Chair

Board of Directors

We are delighted to announce that the NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND has funded Family Care to host a new LIFE STORY PROJECT for a five year period beginning APRIL 2019. 

Life Story Project Workers will work directly with Young People across Northern Ireland aged 11-22 who are in Care, have left Care or who have been Adopted and who have unanswered questions about their past.

The Project will help them to explore their earlier experiences both positive and negative, fill in the gaps in their personal history and gain a clear understanding of their own past.

Project Workers will help these young people to construct a coherent and accessible account of their journey to the present day and create a personal and individual Life Story Book as a record of the work undertaken.

Our Project Workers are looking forward to providing this essential service to young people right across Northern Ireland, and we would like to sincerely thank the National Lottery Community Fund for supporting this innovative Project.

 

Family Care Adoption Services AGM  

Family Care were delighted to have Alex Kane speaking to a wide audience of Family Care Staff, Board of Directors, Adoption Panel and invited guests at our 2018 AGM.

Alex spoke eloquently about his own experience of being adopted from a Children’s Home at the age of 6 years, an experience very much like that of many of the children moving from foster care into adoption today.

Alex talked about the deep love and appreciation he feels for his adoptive parents, who were prepared to ‘take a chance’ on a child in need of not just love, but committed care, attention and reassurance, without any guarantee that he would be able to respond to their dedication….which of course he did.

Alex gave a moving and heartfelt endorsement of how adoption can meet the needs of children from Care…both then and now….and described with enthusiasm the positive difference that adoption can make in changing a child’s life forever.

There are still children in care waiting for a fresh start …Children like the 6 year old Alex….Waiting for new parents to ‘take the chance’ of loving them….Could you be who they are waiting for?

We are always waiting to hear from people who are interested in adopting-and we will be with you all the way through your Adoption journey

CONTACT US !!

And you could be celebrating a new family of your own too!!

Belfast Office

97, Malone Avenue

Belfast

BT9 6EQ!

Telephone 028 9069 1133

Derry Office

9, Orchard Business Park

Pennyburn Indistrial Estate

Derry

BT48 0LU

Telephone: 028 7136 8592

www.familycaresociety.co.uk.

Right now there are more children waiting to be adopted than there are families approved to adopt.

More children are waiting for a new family than there are families waiting for a child to be placed with them

In particular, children aged 4 or above and children who need to be placed with a brother or sister wait longer to be adopted than any other children.

Adoptive families here in Northern Ireland have always had a strong history of offering these children permanent, loving and secure homes; recognising that all young children need a family of their own, not just babies and toddlers, and that many children need to stay together with a sibling-or even two!

Family Care Adoption Services is proud of its own history in finding ‘forever families’ for all children in need of a new start; babies and toddlers, pre-school and just started school, individual youngsters and those with brothers and sisters.

Many children are out there right now waiting for their own ‘forever families’ and we at Family Care Adoption Services will welcome enquiries from anyone interested in Adoption or in Concurrent Caring across Northern Ireland

Our experienced Social Work staff can offer you an immediate informative response, a thorough professional assessment, the opportunity to be matched with a child/children who fits your family, and a long term supportive relationship for as long as we are needed.

If you are interested in Adoption or Concurrent Caring or would like more information,

Please get in touch with us- We are waiting to hear from you!