Adoption East Midlands February 2025 newsletter

We’re taking part in this year’s LGBTQ+ Fostering and Adoption Week, Saturday 1 March until Friday 7 March, led by New Family Social.

In 2023, one in five adoptions in England were to same-sex couples and still many LGBTQ+ people count themselves out as potential adoption and fostering applicants.

With Foster for East Midlands, we are holding an information event in partnership with Derbyshire LGBTQ on Tuesday 4 March, 6pm until 9pm, at 25 Curzon Street, Derby, DE1 1LH. We want to encourage LGBTQ+ people to find out more about adoption in an informal and supportive environment.

In 2025 we are running an extra adoption panel - this panel needed a name.

We have been, and continue to be, on a journey to ensure our Global Majority are seen, heard and considered in all we do. Our TRIA (Tackling Racism and Inequality in Adoption) group and panel members were consulted and two people put forward ‘Unity’.

Theresa Peltier was one of those people and is the Chair of the panel, please follow the link to read about her reasons for choosing this name.

We still have spaces available on our 3-to-8-year-olds and parents event on Thursday 20 February, 2025.

These events are always great opportunities to meet other adoptive families, share experiences and take part in a variety of activities. You can find out more on our Hub.

Please email us at AdoptionEvents@adoptioneastmidlands.nottscc.gov.uk if you would like to book a space on this event or find out more about the venue.

This month we’re introducing you to our advanced practitioners here at AEM. We now have three experienced social worker advanced practitioners in post: Naomi who’s based in the Recruitment Assessment and Placement team, Alex in Adoption Support and Charlotte in the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT).

As well as undertaking work in their individual specialist areas, they also work together to support learning, development and reflective practice across AEM both within the staff team and our wider adoption community; work which has been well received across the service.

It has been great to see how these relatively newer roles within AEM have become established and to be able to share our advanced practitioners’ variety of knowledge and skills, as they work in strengthening our culture of learning and development to promote best practice.

The Adoption Barometer survey 2025 is now live!

The Adoption Barometer survey provides powerful evidence of the realities of adopting and being adopted and has caught the attention of government authorities and adoption agencies across the UK.

Adoptees aged 16 years or over, adoptive parents of children aged 0-25 years and anyone involved in adoption approvals or matching during 2024 can take part in the survey. We would encourage all affected by adoption across our region to have your say!