If the agency that arranged your relative's adoption was Thurrock, Havering or Southend, or you live in one of those boroughs, 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. 

Over the past 20 years more and more birth relatives have expressed the desire to find out more about a relative who had been placed for adoption and possibly to have contact with them. The new Adoption and Children Act 2002 allows the birth relatives of adopted adults to apply for an 'intermediary service' from their local authority. for help where they are seeking to establish contact with an adopted adult. The birth relative themselves cannot have details of the adopted person, because of the confidentiality of the adoption process, but the intermediary (usually an adoption  social worker) can, and can use these to trace the adopted person and ask if they wish to receive information or contact.

Intermediary services
Intermediary services are now available:

• To people over the age of 18 and related by birth to an adult who was adopted before 30 December 2005. Birth relatives can now ask an intermediary agency to trace an adopted person and find out if they want to have contact.

You need to be aware that there may be large numbers of people applying for an intermediary service. We are required to give priority to applications involving adoptions that took place before 12th November 1975.

How does it work?

1. If you want to trace a birth relative who was adopted from Thurrock, Havering or Southend, or you yourself are resident in one of these boroughs, then you can apply to Partners in Adoption for help.

2. We will interview you to find out the full details behind your search, considering your welfare, the potential welfare and wishes of the person you want to contact and all the other circumstances and factual details of the case.

3. If we decide to proceed and assist you, we may then ask for information from:

a. the adoption agency which was involved at the time in placing the adopted person(where the intermediary agency is not the agency that arranged the adoption or holds the relevant files)

b. the Registrar General

c. the courts

 - to help to trace the person and make contact with them.

4. If we are not able to trace the adopted person through this process you may be advised to enroll with a recommended adoption tracing agency (such as Norcap) who will charge a fee for a more extensive search of national databases.

You should be aware the tracing process actually involves 2 stages; firstly identifying the name given to your relative following their adoption (because of the fact that in adoption individuals always change their surname, and quite often their first name as well in the past) and then locating that person so that they can be contacted.  The adoption agency can usually assist with the first, as long as the adoption is not too distant in the past and the records with the new name still exist.  However it can sometimes still be very difficult to locate adopted people, particularly women who have changed their name on marriage, perhaps more than once, and people who have moved around a great deal, or even gone overseas.  Sadly, with all the best efforts, some searches of this kind are never successful.  Others can take many months, or even years.

5. Once identified and located we must then ask the person if they consent to being identified to you and having contact with you. Under the law, they have the right to veto any further information given to you, and we must abide by this.  We cannot even tell you that we have found them, without their permission.  However, we use the information that you have given us in your original interview, and our skills to counsel them about their decision.

6. If they give their consent, we can help you get in touch with each other and provide any counselling, advice and support that's needed.

7. If the person you want to trace decides they do not want to have contact with you and refuses to give consent to any detailed information, we will still ask them whether we may pass on non-identifying information to you to reassure you. Remember, it may be quite a surprise for them to be approached by an intermediary agency and they may need time to think about how to respond. Even if they decide they do not want contact - perhaps because it's not the right time for them - they could change their mind some time in the future. You are welcome to leave a letter or other information on their own adoption file so that we can pass it on if they come back to us in the future.  We advise you to ensure that we always have a contact address for you as it is not unusual for people to come back some years later when their own circumstances have changed.