Adoption East Midlands newsletter April 2025

Since we became Adoption East Midlands in 2019, we have constantly been refining how we deliver our services, and following the pandemic have often had to make very rapid changes.

Here’s some of what we’ve been focusing on over the last six years:

• Working closely with Adoption England, to help achieve the aims of culture change in adoption.
• Delivering more services every year, such as agency advice, birth family support, and an enhanced offer for thinking about keeping in touch.
• Being increasingly multi-disciplinary, with family workers, peer workers, youth and education workers and access to other disciplines.
• Continuing to see around the same number of children needing adoptive families each year, and a growth in our support services, both for families with older children, and for recent adoptive families.

We will continue to be an adapting organisation, always listening and always learning.

We’re offering a series of educational workshops in 2025 tailored for adoptive parents.

The workshops aim to support children's educational needs, covering topics such as transitions in primary and secondary school, building communication and relationships, and an introduction to SEND.

Sessions are designed to foster collaboration and provide valuable insights. Please get in touch for more information and to register for sessions.

The Parent and Child Sensory group (previously known as the Early Movement group) is starting up again!

This supportive programme for parents and preschool age children starts on Tuesday 3 June 2025 for five weeks, with sessions held on Tuesdays in Mansfield Woodhouse.

The group offers parents and children sensory play activities tailored to their needs, fostering early motor development and parent-child bonding. As well as having fun with your little one, at the end of the course you will take away a sensory menu tailored to your child to use within your own home!

We have reopened our systemic family therapy offer.

Systemic therapy offers families the opportunity to explore their challenges and work together towards finding new solutions. Our reflecting team includes Therapeutic Social Worker and Systemic Practitioner, Jess Wolfe and Therapist, Systemic Practitioner and registered Art Psychotherapist, Sarah Burgin.

Sessions will take place on a Monday. Speak with your social worker or contact our helpdesk to find out more.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Adoption and Permanence is a group of MPs and peers dedicated to raising awareness about adoption issues, improving policies for adopted children and families, and supporting best practice.

As part of this work, they are launching a survey to gather insights from young adoptees age 13 to 25 to ensure their experiences help shape future policies on adoption. We would encourage young adoptees across our region to take part.

As a service we are excited to be involved in the Relationships in Good Hands (RIGHT) Trial of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) which is a research project led by Glasgow University.

We would love to hear from adopters with children age 5 to 12 years who would be interested in participating in the project which has the potential to strengthen relationships and attachment within your family.
Please contact our team for more information before Thursday, 31 July 2025.