If you wish to adopt a relative or stepchild and you are a resident of Thurrock, Havering or Southend, you can contact Partners in Adoption on 0800 652 1271 for further discussion or information. Alternatively complete the request form and send it to us, we will send out an information pack. 

To adopt your wife or husbands child or a related child who normally lives in the UK you will must notify  the local authority where you reside that you plan to adopt before starting your adoption application with the court.  For this type of adoption you cannot choose which adoption agency you approach, must go to your own local authority (Thurrock residents only can apply to Thurrock).

The court will ask us to provide a report on you, your husband or wife, the child and the birth parents, to help the court make a decision about whether it would be in the child's best interests for such an order to be made. The report will be prepared by a social worker. Any other parent or person holding Parental Responsibility for the child will be consulted and must normally agree to the adoption, although sometimes in exceptional circumstances the court may rule that this is not necessary. The child must be seen and interviewed in a child sensitive manner to establish their views.

An important point people often forgetten is that the courts view adoption from the child's perspective, rather than the adult's. Whilst the wishes of the adults are taken into account, an adoption order will only be granted if it is viewed as being in the best long term interests of the child. Some people feel the need to adopt their stepchild in order to make the family feel complete, or to change a child's surname to match others in the household, but these alone are not sufficient reason for a court to grant an adoption order.  The courts are reluctant to sever a child's relationships with birth family (including grandparents) without good reason.