Adopting a baby or child

Foster to adopt

Foster to adopt is sometimes presented as a faster route to a younger child. The reality is more complicated than that. This page explains what it actually involves, the two quite different situations in which it is used, and why Jigsaw thinks it works for some families but not most.

A woman and a young child wearing matching cream-colored knitted sweaters rest their foreheads together.

By Khalida · Adoptive parent · MBA, University of Oxford · 15 years building organisations

Understanding what foster to adopt is

In a foster-to-adopt placement, a child or children are placed with prospective adopters, but they are placed initially as a foster placement, not an adoption placement. That means the people caring for the child begin as their foster carers, not their adopters.

The intention is that, subject to the permanence plan for the child being confirmed and not changed, they will remain in that home and the placement will eventually be converted into an adoption placement. After that, the adopters can apply for an adoption order in the normal way.

So in theory it is a single home from start to finish, with no move in the middle. That is the appeal, and on paper it is a reasonable idea. In practice there are two quite distinct situations in which foster-to-adopt placements are used, and they need to be understood separately.

Scenario one: a placement with no prior connection to the birth family

Why a baby is placed under an interim care order
This scenario is typically used where a mother has already had one or more children removed from her care, and the local authority does not think there is a realistic prospect of her being able to care for a new baby. The local authority will usually obtain an interim care order at or around the time the child is born.
How prospective adopters get involved
The child can be placed almost immediately with foster carers. One option is for those foster carers to be a couple or single person who has been dual-approved both as a foster carer and as a prospective adopter.
The local authority's assessment
The local authority then works through its usual assessment process. It considers whether the child could safely return to a birth parent, whether they could be placed with extended family, or whether adoption is the right plan.
If adoption is confirmed
If the local authority concludes adoption is the right plan, it goes to court for a placement order. If the court grants the order, a matching panel is convened. If the panel recommends placing the child with the family they are already living with, and the agency decision maker agrees, the placement converts and the family can in time apply to adopt.
If adoption is not confirmed
If the local authority finds the child should be placed with a birth relative, with different approved adopters, or in another foster placement entirely, the child is removed from the prospective adopters. The family will have been their foster carers for whatever time has passed, sometimes many months, and will then say goodbye.

An adult holds the hand of a child, who is looking down at a smooth, grey and white pebble resting in their palms.

Scenario two: a child whose sibling is already with you

When this scenario applies
This scenario applies where a family has already adopted a child from a particular birth family, and the birth mother subsequently has another child.
How the local authority gets in touch
If the local authority again concludes that the mother cannot care for the new baby, and obtains a care order at or around the birth, they may contact the existing adoptive family and ask whether they would consider a foster-to-adopt placement for the new sibling.
Why the probability is higher
The probability of the child remaining with the family is meaningfully higher in this scenario because there is already an adopted sibling in the home. The case for keeping siblings together is strong, and the courts and local authorities take it seriously when planning permanence.
Jigsaw's view on this scenario
This is the scenario in which Jigsaw thinks foster to adopt can genuinely make sense.

Two young girls holding hands, seen from behind, standing on a path covered in fallen autumn leaves.

The real difficulties

The children may not stay

This is the central difficulty. There are no published statistics, as far as we are aware, on what proportion of foster-to-adopt placements convert to adoption versus end with the child being moved. Nobody measures this. That makes it hard to give people a clear sense of the odds. What we can say is that if you have had a child placed with you at birth and have cared for them for a year or longer, the prospect of that child being removed is heartbreaking, and it is a real possibility, not a remote one.

You have no parental responsibility

Because the children are in a foster placement under a care order, rather than an adoption placement under a placement order, parental responsibility sits with the local authority, not with you. Day-to-day decisions that adoptive parents take for granted, such as getting their hair cut, going on a trip, registering with a GP, making medical decisions, or routine sign-offs at school, have to be cleared with the local authority first. You are caring for the child, but you are not their legal parent.

The children can be moved without your agreement

As foster carers, you have no formal say if the local authority social worker decides the child should go elsewhere. This is simply how the law works for children under a care order. It is not a criticism of any individual social worker, it is the structure of the placement.

There will be regular contact with the birth family

Because the children are under a care order rather than a placement order, the birth family retains rights, including the right to see the children. In practice that often means regular face to face contact meetings, sometimes several times a week. You may be the person taking the child to and from those visits and supporting them through them, while not knowing whether the child will eventually stay with you or return to the family they are meeting.

You do not have the right to adoption leave

Because the placement starts as a fostering placement and not an adoption placement, you do not have an automatic right to adoption leave from work at the point the child arrives. Adoption leave only kicks in when the placement formally converts. That is genuinely difficult to combine with full-time work, particularly if both adults in the household are working.

Jigsaw's view

Our view is that foster-to-adopt placements can work in the second scenario described above, where a family has already adopted a child from the same birth family, and a younger sibling needs a home. The case for keeping siblings together is strong, the probability of the placement converting is higher, and the family already understands the birth family situation.

For other foster-to-adopt placements, where there is no existing connection to the birth family, our view is that the uncertainty is too high and the stress on prospective adopters is too great for it to be the right route for most people. The combination of regular birth family contact, no parental responsibility, no guaranteed outcome, and no adoption leave is a lot to ask of anyone.

We do not offer foster to adopt as a service. We focus on standard adoption, and we do that well. If foster to adopt is what you are looking for, several other voluntary adoption agencies and most regional adoption agencies do offer it. A search for "foster to adopt" alongside your region will surface them.

If you are open to standard adoption, we would be glad to hear from you.

Adopting a baby or young child

Adopting siblings

The adoption process with Jigsaw

Why Jigsaw