Common questions about adoption

Yes, absolutely. In 2025, around 22% of all adoption orders granted in the UK went to single adopters — single applicants are a substantial and well-established part of UK adoption.

What matters is the support around you — friends, family, neighbours, colleagues — not your relationship status. Your assessing social worker will explore this with you in Stage 2.

One thing worth knowing: a high proportion of Jigsaw's placements are sibling groups of two or more children, and in our experience local authorities can be reluctant to place sibling groups with single adopters. If you're a single applicant set on adopting siblings, that's worth discussing with us at the initial conversation.

Yes. Joint adoption by same-sex couples has been legal in the UK since the Adoption and Children Act 2002 came into effect in 2005. Sexual orientation, gender identity, and relationship structure are not factors in eligibility.

Some adoption agencies promote themselves to specific groups of adopters — same-sex couples, single adopters, particular faiths. Jigsaw's philosophy is different: we don't promote ourselves to any specific group. Everyone is welcome on the same terms.

No. Adopting couples can be married, in a civil partnership, or cohabiting in a stable long-term relationship. We'd typically expect a relationship of at least two years' standing before you start the process — this isn't a statutory rule but it's the conventional benchmark agencies use to assess stability.

Yes. There's no requirement to be employed in any particular way to adopt — self-employed adopters are welcome.

We're aware that some other agencies ask for payslips as part of their process, which can effectively exclude self-employed applicants. There's no basis for this in regulation. At Jigsaw we welcome both employed and self-employed adopters on the same terms.

Yes. There's no requirement to own your home. What we look for is housing stability — that the child will have a settled home environment. A long-term tenancy is fine.

Yes. Many adopters already have children — biological, previously adopted, or step-children — and the assessment will explore how you'd manage the dynamics of integrating an adopted child into your family.

In our experience, local authorities are reluctant to place adopted children with families where there are already children younger than around 10 or 11. This isn't set out in regulation, but it's been a fairly consistent pattern of local authority practice over recent years. A child being placed for adoption typically becomes the youngest in the family by some margin.

There's no upper age limit. You must be at least 21. In practice, most adopters are between 30 and 50, though we've placed children with adopters in their 50s. What matters is your health, energy, and capacity to parent the child to independence.

Mental health history is rarely a barrier in itself. What we look at is whether your mental health is currently stable, how you cope with everyday challenges, what support you have around you, and how you'd manage the demands of parenting.

Yes. Disability and chronic illness don’t disqualify you. The key criterion is your ability to care for children — to meet the practical and emotional demands of parenting, with whatever adaptations or support you need.

Most criminal records don't disqualify you. There are specific convictions — those involving children, sexual offences, and serious violence — that are absolute bars. These are set out in the Adoption Agencies (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2013. Beyond those, we look at the nature of the offence, when it happened, and what's changed since. Old or minor convictions are rarely a problem.

We'd rather you tell us about anything on your record at your initial conversation than discover it during the DBS check.

It depends on the relationship and whether children were involved. If you previously lived with a partner and there were children in the household — yours, theirs, or both — we'll typically want to speak to that ex. Where there were no children involved, or you didn't share a household, we generally don't need to make contact.

We're aware that many other agencies don't speak to former partners at all. There's no basis for this in regulation, and we think it's the right thing to do where children were in the picture.

When we do contact an ex, our concern is safeguarding only — were there any concerns about how children in the household were treated. We're not asking your ex whether you'd be a good parent or whether they liked you. If there are no safeguarding concerns, that's the end of it.

Sometimes a former partner can't be reached or refuses to cooperate. In that case we'll look for other ways to verify there were no safeguarding concerns from that period — for example, references from someone who knew you both at the time.

Yes, though most adopters take significant time off when a child is first placed — typically using adoption leave from work for six to twelve months. After that initial settling-in period, many adopters return to work, often part-time or with flexibility.

The early months matter for attachment, so we'll want to understand how you're planning the transition back to work.

Yes. There's nothing in adoption regulation that prevents you from adopting if you have diabetes or other chronic conditions. The key thing is that you can manage the condition in a way that lets you care for children day-to-day.

As part of the assessment we'll ask your GP for a report on your overall health. Unless your GP has concerns that would affect your ability to parent, diabetes itself is not a problem. Jigsaw has worked with adopters who have diabetes and other chronic conditions.

From first enquiry to legally adopting a child typically takes 12 to 18 months. The assessment alone takes around 8 to 12 months in practice, despite a 6-month statutory framework. Matching, introductions, placement, and the legal adoption order add another 6 to 12 months on top, depending on flexibility about age, sibling groups, and additional needs.

The statutory framework sets a 6-month target for the two-stage assessment. In practice, very few assessments complete in 6 months. Department for Education data shows around 27.5% of local authority assessments and 14.3% of London local authority assessments complete within the statutory timeframe. The realistic expectation is 8 to 12 months.

It is possible but uncommon. Adopters who book their GP medical and start their DBS check immediately, identify referees early, and proceed without taking the optional break between Stage 1 and Stage 2 can complete the assessment in close to six months. Matching and placement then add several more months before legal adoption.

Matching timescales vary widely — from a few months to over a year. The biggest factor is flexibility about age, sibling groups, and additional needs. Adopters open to older children, sibling groups, or children with additional needs are typically matched faster. Adopters waiting for very young single children with no additional needs often wait longer.

Approval typically takes six to nine months from your first conversation with us. Matching with a child is variable — some families match within weeks, others wait several months. The flexibility you have on age, sibling groups, and additional needs is the biggest factor in how long matching takes.

Domestic adoption is free for adopters in the UK. Under the Adoption and Children Act 2002, adoption agencies are not allowed to charge adopters a fee. Jigsaw covers all professional costs.

There are some small incidental costs you’d cover yourself — medical reports, DBS checks, travel during introductions. Financial support is also available through adoption pay and the Adoption Support Fund.

Stage 1 is the first of two statutory stages in the UK adoption approval process and takes up to two months. It covers the administrative checks every adoption agency is required to carry out — DBS checks, medicals, references — plus a multi-day preparation course.

Stage 2 is the in-depth assessment phase and takes around four months. You'll be allocated a social worker who'll write the Prospective Adopter Report (PAR) that goes to panel. It involves home visits, conversations about your background and motivation, and exploring how you'd respond to the realities of adoptive parenting.

The adoption panel is a group of people, including independent members and people with personal experience of adoption, who meet to consider your Prospective Adopter Report and recommend whether you should be approved as adopters. The panel asks you questions about your application; it's a conversation, not an interrogation.

The PAR is a long document your assessing social worker writes during Stage 2, summarising your life history, motivation, relationships, support network, and capacity to adopt. You read it in draft and contribute to it — it's a shared piece of work, not something done about you.

Matching is the part of the process where the right child or children are linked with the right adoptive family. It can take weeks or many months depending on flexibility. Once a potential match is identified, you'll see information about the child, meet the foster carers and social worker, and decide whether to proceed to a formal matching panel.

Babies under one year old are rare in UK adoption. Most children waiting are over two, often in sibling groups, or have additional needs. If a baby is your only option, you should expect a longer wait. If you're open to slightly older children or sibling groups, matching is much faster.

Most children waiting for adoption are between two and seven years old. Around 20% of children waiting for adoption with a placement order are aged five or over.

Children over five wait longest because most adopters apply with younger children in mind. Being open to older children is one of the quickest routes to matching.

Yes. Around 40% of children waiting for adoption with a placement order are in sibling groups of two or more children. Keeping siblings together matters and Jigsaw places sibling groups regularly. Being open to siblings is the single biggest factor in matching quickly.

Foster to adopt (also called early permanence) is when an approved adopter is placed with a baby or very young child as a foster carer first, while the legal proceedings to clear the child for adoption are still happening. If the court grants the adoption, the carer becomes the adoptive parent. If the child returns to the birth family or is adopted by someone else, they don't stay with the foster carer.

It's quite common to have some form of contact with birth family members, though direct face-to-face contact is rare. The most common arrangement is letterbox contact — letters or updates exchanged once or twice a year, mediated by Jigsaw.

Direct face-to-face contact happens only where it's agreed at the time of placement and where it's clearly right for the child's needs and the adoptive family's circumstances. Worth knowing: birth family members aren't always parents — they can also be siblings who've been placed with other adoptive families, and that kind of sibling contact is more straightforward.

Jigsaw's position on ongoing face-to-face contact with birth parents is that it tends to be unsettling for the children and stressful for the adoptive parents. We don't generally support placements where ongoing direct contact with birth parents is required, and we haven't placed children with our families on those terms. If you're looking for an open-adoption arrangement with regular face-to-face birth parent contact, Jigsaw isn't the right fit.

All children waiting for adoption have experienced loss. Many have experienced neglect, abuse, or other trauma. Even babies who left their birth family at days old carry that history in their early development.

Stage 1 training prepares you for this. In our experience at Jigsaw, most adoptive families go on to live family life much like any other family — ongoing problems or concerns directly arising from the child's adoption are extremely rare. Where therapeutic support is needed, it's available through the Adoption Support Fund and Jigsaw's own post-placement services.

Yes. Domestic adoption in the UK is free for adopters. Under the Adoption and Children Act 2002, adoption agencies are not permitted to charge adopters a fee. Jigsaw covers all professional costs.

You may be entitled to adoption pay (similar to maternity pay) from your employer, statutory adoption leave, the Adoption Support Fund (which pays for therapeutic services), and ongoing means-tested benefits where applicable. Some local authorities also provide settling-in grants.

The Adoption Support Fund (ASF) is a UK government fund that pays for therapeutic services for adopted children — things like play therapy, theraplay, life-story work, and family therapy. It's administered through the local authority and Jigsaw can help you apply.

Yes. Statutory adoption leave is up to 52 weeks under the Employment Rights Act 1996, mirroring maternity leave. Adoption pay is paid at the same rates as maternity pay, and many employers offer enhanced adoption packages on top.

Our experience at Jigsaw is that the best approach is always to talk to your employer early. So far, every Jigsaw adopter has found their employer supportive of their adoption plans.

Both are approved to assess and match adopters, but they work differently.

Local authorities work with adopters living in their own area or in the area of the regional adoption agency they're a member of. Since regional adoption agencies (RAAs) were introduced in 2018, most local authorities are now part of a regional grouping, and they tend to restrict matching to families and children within that region.

Jigsaw is a fully independent voluntary adoption agency. We're not part of any RAA, which means we can work with all local authorities across England and Wales when matching children to families.

Jigsaw is based in Oxfordshire and London. We work with adopters across the Thames Valley region and all London Boroughs, and with surrounding counties depending on capacity. We don't currently work with adopters outside the south of England.

Once you're approved, we can find children for you from any local authority in England and Wales — that geographic reach is on the children's side, not the adopters' side.

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