Adoption North West launches “Growing Families Together” to champion Early Permanence

Early Permanence, also known as fostering for adoption or foster to adopt, places children with approved families at the earliest possible stage, offering them stability while decisions about their long‑term future are made. These individuals, couples and families are approved both as foster carers and adopters, giving children the chance to form secure attachments from the very beginning.

• As of 31 July 2026, 286 children in the North West were waiting for a family through adoption.
• Between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026, 67 children were placed through Early Permanence by North West adoption agencies, with 54% of children aged under 6 months when placed.

Local authorities are required to consider Early Permanence for every child who enters care and cannot remain with their birth family. This approach reduces the number of moves children experience and supports better long‑term outcomes for children.

Early Permanence carers are approved as both foster carers and adopters and will initially perform the role of foster carer while the courts decide whether or not a child can return to his/ her birth family. This includes regular contact with birth family members.

Rachael and Paul, adopted three children through Early Permanence, said:

“We went from a couple to a family of five, it was quite the experience! When our adoption order was granted we held a celebration with family and had a custom made Lego cake topper of our family of five (pictured).

As there is direct contact with birth family in Early Permanence arrangements, we are now able to talk about birth parents first hand because we got to know them a bit during contact and can share first hand anecdotes with our children. This has been especially important with our eldest, who was 4 when he was placed with us, as he talks about them and we can share things with him.”

Iqbal and Ayesha, are now proud parents to two daughters. Their first daughter Khadija, was placed with them through an Early Permanence placement at nine months old.

“Adoption felt completely unfamiliar. We didn’t know anyone who’d adopted and we worried about everything,” Ayesha shared. “Our finances, our house, whether we earned enough. We underestimated ourselves and whether we were ‘good enough’ to take care of a child.”

What helped was speaking openly with their social worker right from the start. 

“She was so honest and reassuring,” Iqbal explains. 

Stacey is a solo adopter of her son Elias.  Stacey comments:

“When I first met Elias, he was two days old and fast asleep. He arrived straight from hospital at 7pm and I just sat and looked at him for a while. It was so surreal that he was really here.”

Stacey was anxious about the contact with birth family, which was with birth Mum at a contact centre four times a week:

“If you’d have asked me before, I was a bit worried about hostility towards me as an adopter, but it wasn’t like that at all. It was a real benefit as it gave us a chance to get to know each other. She feels comfortable that I’ve adopted him and it gave me the opportunity to know things about him that aren’t written down on a piece of paper.

It also gave me the chance to get to know her, not just someone else’s description of her; and I even met his gran which I wasn’t expecting.”

Sarah Johal MBE, National Adoption Strategic Lead for Adoption England, said:

“Early Permanence is a child‑centred practice that offers stability at a very early stage, preventing multiple moves and the associated trauma of separation from and loss of their main caregivers at often a very young age.

It’s fantastic to see adoption agencies across the Northwest working together to raise awareness and encourage more people to consider adopting through early permanence.”

The campaign is sharing more real stories from adopters about their experiences of early permanence in their campaign film available to view on their website at www.adoptionnorthwest.co.uk

Link to campaign film: https://youtu.be/XJOssc8K67o