There is no such thing as the “ideal” or “perfect” adoptive family. At Partners in Adoption we are more interested in what you have to offer a child who needs adoption than your marital status, income level and whether you have children or not. You do not have to follow any religion to be considered and people from all ethnic origins are needed. Disabled people are not excluded and often experience of disability will be positively welcomed.

Everyone has to have a medical examination and general health issues will need to be explored. A record of offences will need to be carefully looked into but, apart from some offences against children, will not necessarily rule you out. The only legal requirements are that you are over 21 years of age. It is possible for a single person, or one partner in an unmarried couple - heterosexual, lesbian or gay - to adopt.

We have a responsibility to ensure as far as possible that prospective adopters are likely to be fit and active at least until their child is a young adult. There is no upper age limit for adopters but we do look at age as part of a range of factors that may impact on your ability to care for an adopted child. However, this is not inflexible and depends partly on what the adopters are offering in relation to the needs of waiting children.

There are far more people wanting to adopt white babies without disabilities than there are such babies needing new homes. To avoid recruiting and preparing families whom we will never be able to use we are not actively recruiting adopters for white babies.

We are looking for families who can meet the needs of individual children. Some children will benefit from being adopted by a couple who already have children of their own whilst other children may need the one-to one attention of a single person. We always try to recruit families who match the racial and cultural background of the child and share the child's religion and language. Unfortunately, this is not always possible. A family may then be sought who can value and actively develop the child's sense of ethnic and cultural identity, even though they don't share it.

Adoption focuses on the needs of the child and we concentrate on looking with you at what you have to offer waiting children and what sort of child would best fit into your family.