How to adopt a child in scotland

Adopting a child in Scotland

Hide this page Or press escape key to hide this page

(Or press Esc key)

You can adopt in Scotland if you're:

aged 21 or older (there's no upper age limit)
single or in a couple
a gay man or woman, either on your own or with your partner or spouse
a parent already or not
not born in Scotland, as long as you have lived here for more than a year

There can be different rules if you want to adopt from abroad.

Find your nearest adoption agency

You can use a local council adoption agency or a charity.

Find your local council's adoption agency

Choose your councilVisit Aberdeen City CouncilVisit Aberdeenshire CouncilVisit Angus CouncilVisit Argyll and Bute CouncilVisit Clackmannanshire CouncilVisit Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council)Visit Dumfries & Galloway CouncilVisit Dundee City CouncilVisit East Ayrshire CouncilVisit East Dunbartonshire CouncilVisit East Lothian CouncilVisit East Renfrewshire CouncilVisit Edinburgh CouncilVisit Falkirk CouncilVisit Fife CouncilVisit Glasgow CouncilVisit Highland CouncilVisit Inverclyde CouncilVisit Midlothian CouncilVisit Moray CouncilVisit North Ayrshire CouncilVisit North Lanarkshire CouncilVisit Orkney CouncilVisit Perth & Kinross CouncilVisit Renfrewshire CouncilVisit Scottish Borders CouncilVisit Shetland Islands CouncilVisit South Ayrshire CouncilVisit South Lanarkshire CouncilVisit Stirling CouncilVisit West Dunbartonshire councilVisit West Lothian council

Visit Aberdeen City CouncilVisit Aberdeenshire CouncilVisit Angus CouncilVisit Argyll and Bute CouncilVisit Clackmannanshire CouncilVisit Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council)Visit Dumfries & Galloway CouncilVisit Dundee City CouncilVisit East Ayrshire CouncilVisit East Dunbartonshire CouncilVisit East Lothian CouncilVisit East Renfrewshire CouncilVisit Edinburgh CouncilVisit Falkirk CouncilVisit Fife CouncilVisit Glasgow CouncilVisit Highland CouncilVisit Inverclyde CouncilVisit Midlothian CouncilVisit Moray CouncilVisit North Ayrshire CouncilVisit North Lanarkshire CouncilVisit Orkney CouncilVisit Perth & Kinross CouncilVisit Renfrewshire CouncilVisit Scottish Borders CouncilVisit Shetland Islands CouncilVisit South Ayrshire CouncilVisit South Lanarkshire CouncilVisit Stirling CouncilVisit West Dunbartonshire councilVisit West Lothian council

Charities that you can adopt through include:

Barnardo's
Scottish Adoption
St Andrews Children's Society
St Margaret's Children and Family Care Society

Apply to adopt

If you want to adopt you need to contact a registered adoption agency unless the child's a close relative or your step-child (find more information about this below).

The adoption agency will check whether you're suitable to adopt - this assessment is often called a 'home study'. It will include checking your:

medical history
criminal record
finances
home - to make sure it's a safe environment for a child

The home study will involve a series of visits and meetings with a social worker who is allocated to work with you. They will visit you at home and may meet with your friends or family members as part of the process.

The agency will make a decision about whether you can adopt after speaking to the 'adoption panel' (a group of experts, for example social workers).

If they decide to let you adopt, the agency will then try to match you with a child. You can be involved in this by using Scotland's Adoption Register to help you find the right child or children.

This home study can take months and matching you with a child can take up to a year.

When a child is placed with you

After a child is placed with you, adoption agency staff will check how things are going. If they are happy that the match works for you and the child they will get the court to issue an 'adoption order'.

An adoption order gives you legal guardianship of the child. This means you are now their legal parents.

If the child's a close relative or your step-child

You must tell your local council that you want to adopt the child. They will check your situation and will prepare a report for the court. The court will then decide whether to grant the adoption.

Appealing if you're rejected

If your application to adopt is rejected, you can:

ask for a meeting with the adoption agency to find out why
write a letter to the agency asking them to change their decision and explaining why they should
use the agency's complaints procedure
complain to the Care Inspectorate.

You could also try applying to another agency but you have to tell them about your first application.

Costs of adopting

You legally cannot be charged a fee from an adoption agency. You may have to pay for a police check and sometimes court fees for the adoption order.

You can ask the agency about whether they cover all costs.

Adoption pay and leave

When you take time off to adopt a child you may be eligible for:

Statutory Adoption Leave
Statutory Adoption Pay

Find out more about adoption pay and leave and plan your adoption leave on the GOV.UK website.

You may also be able to take Shared Parental Leave and Pay.

Further support

Adoption in Scotland is a charity offering advice, support and information to families who want to adopt, or who have already adopted. They also have factsheets on their website with more information about adopting.

Get support: The organisation's Scottish helpline: 0131 202 3670 (Monday to Friday from 10am to 2.30pm)

Email: [email protected]

There is a problem

Thanks for your feedback

Was this helpful?

Yes

Your comments

Note: Your feedback will help us make improvements on this site. Please do not provide any personal information

Choose a reason for your feedback

Please select a reasonIt wasn't detailed enoughIt's hard to understandIt's incorrectIt needs updatingI'm not sure what I need to do nextThere's a broken linkOther

Your comments

Note: Your feedback will help us make improvements on this site. Please do not provide any personal information

Yes, but

Choose a reason for your feedback

Please select a reasonIt's hard to understandIt needs updatingI'm not sure what I need to do nextThere's a broken linkThere's a spelling mistakeOther

Your comments

Note: Your feedback will help us make improvements on this site. Please do not provide any personal information

Adopting a child from abroad

Adopting a child from abroad is also called ‘intercountry adoption’.

Who can adopt a child from abroad

You must be 21 years or over to apply to adopt.

There’s no upper age limit or any rules about things like:

marital status
sexuality
race
religion
disability

As long as you’re 21 or over you can apply to adopt. Your council carries out an assessment to decide if you’re suitable to adopt.

But the country you want to adopt from may have other rules about who can adopt there. For example age, sexuality or marital status.

You should always research the country you want to adopt from.

Get legal advice

If you’re thinking of adopting a child from abroad, the first thing you should do is get legal advice. It’s important you do this first as the process might be different depending on the country you want to adopt from. For example if the country is part of the Hague Convention.

Help finding a lawyer

You can:

find a lawyer on the Law Society of Scotland website (search by area of law)
get legal help and advice from Citizen Advice Scotland

If you live abroad

You must follow the adoption laws of the country you’re in if you’re ‘normally resident’ in that country. ‘Normally resident’ means it’s your main home.

You must follow Scottish adoption law if you’re normally resident in Scotland. This is sometimes called ‘habitual residence’. It can apply even if you’re living abroad at the time of the adoption.

If you’re unsure, you should get legal advice before going ahead with an adoption.

If you adopt a child (either in Scotland or abroad) and then travel or move to another country, it may not recognise the adoption. If you have any doubts you should get legal advice.

Research the country of adoption

You should research the country you're adopting from and what fees they ask for. If you need help getting information you can ask for help from the country's embassy or consulate.

Check:

consulates in Scotland
embassies in London

Country restrictions

Scotland has restricted adoption from the following countries:

Cambodia
Guatemala
Nepal
Haiti
Ethiopia
Nigeria

You can read about the reasons for the restrictions for each country.

How to make an exception request

To adopt a child from a restricted country, you need to explain in writing why your case is exceptional. For example, if you’re adopting a family member. You need to also provide supporting evidence.

Find out how to make an exception request to adopt a child from a country on the restricted list.

How to adopt a child from abroad

You need to apply through your local council adoption team.

Contact local council adoption team

Adoption process

When you apply the local council will assess whether you’re suitable to adopt. They’ll check things like:

medical history
criminal record
finances
references from someone who knows you personally and from your employer
home – to make sure it's a safe environment for a child

They’ll make a decision about whether you can adopt after speaking to the 'adoption panel'. This is a group of experts, for example social workers. They’ll also invite you to the panel. You can choose if you want to go or not.

Fees and other costs

If the local council says you’re suitable to adopt you’ll need to pay fees to take the next step.

Intercountry adoption fee

You may need to pay an Intercountry Adoption Fee to the Scottish Government, depending on your household income:

£25,000 or below

No fee.

£25,001 to £45,000

You need to pay £837.50 (50% of full fee).

£45,001 and over

You need to pay £1675.

Local council fees

Your local council will also charge a fee to assess you for adoption.

The fee varies between councils. You should contact your local council to check this.

Other costs

You may have other costs for things such as:

legal fees
translation services
immigration
travel to the child’s country

Once the Scottish Government check your application they’ll issue a certificate saying you're able to adopt from abroad. This is called a 'certificate of eligibility'.

Matching you with a child

If the country you want to adopt from are happy with your application, they’ll try to match you with a child.

Matching you with a child can take many years. It depends on the number of applications the country gets and how many children are available for adoption.

Immigration

The child will need entry clearance (immigration approval) to enter the UK.

Making the adoption legal

You’ll either:

get an adoption order in the country you're adopting from
bring the child back to Scotland and adopt them here

The adoption team and your lawyer will give you advice on this process.

Adoption pay and leave

When you take time off to adopt a child you may be eligible for:

Statutory Adoption Leave
Statutory Adoption Pay

Find out more about adoption pay and leave.

You may also be able to take Shared Parental Leave and Pay.

Further help

If you need further help email: [email protected]

Adoption system in England is being simplified

December 24, 2012

Image caption,

The number of adoptive parents in the UK is on the rise, but many are put off by years of waiting to meet "their" child

The British government has decided to change its adoption rules to make it faster and more efficient to find foster parents for children deprived of a family.

Those who have already passed the screening and received permission to adopt a child will be given the opportunity to access the database of children, and additional support will be provided to families after adoption.

The British Foster Families Association welcomed the Cabinet announcement.

The number of adoptions in the country is growing: in 2010, three thousand children received foster parents, in 2012 - more than four thousand. But the same number - about 4,000 - are deprived of parental care and are waiting for a family to be picked up for them.

The government wants to interest hundreds of citizens in the prospect of adoption and create attractive conditions for them, but the verification of prospective parents will remain strict and scrupulous.

Not Blindly

The biggest change in the pipeline is that adoptive parents will be able to view the database of children and teenagers in the adoption queue and find out information about them in advance. To do this, you will have to change the law, said a representative of the British Department of Education.

The government also plans to give adoptive parents the right to additional leave so that they can get to know their children better. Adopted children at the age of two will be provided with places in a nursery - 15 hours of free stay per week.

"This package is designed to support those considering adoption so that they know they will be welcomed with open arms if they decide to take this step," Edward Timpson, Deputy Secretary of State for Education, told the BBC. participate in the selection process, and those who have passed all the way will be provided with much more help and support than now."

Around 15,000 Britons express an interest in child custody each year, Timpson says. They make inquiries about the possibility of adoption, but then many are put off by the complexity and length of the procedure. Verification of potential parents sometimes takes years, and all this time the children remain in shelters or with temporary guardians, the official said.

Maternity leave

Skip the Podcast and continue reading.

Podcast

What was that?

We quickly, simply and clearly explain what happened, why it's important and what's next.

episodes

End of Story Podcast

Authorities are willing to fund special adoption days where adults meet children. The charity BAAF has already held three such events, and as a result, every fifth child of those who participated in this day was successfully matched with a family.

According to Janet Grauberg of another charitable foundation, Barnardo, the longer an orphan or neglected child is left in an orphanage, without the love and stability that a permanent family provides, the more he suffers.

"The changes the authorities intend to make to the system will empower adoptive parents and reduce the barriers that have deterred prospective parents for too long," says Grauberg.

There are already innovations in Britain that make life easier for foster families: adoptive parents - mothers and fathers - are given maternity leave of the same duration as biological parents in the case of the birth of children; there is a telephone hotline and a dedicated website for emergency family counselling.

“Don't tell anyone that you are Russian citizens” | Society

Elena K., England

We are both Russian citizens, but we have been living in the UK for 15 years, married for 25. Without children, the family is incomplete, and after several unsuccessful IVF procedures, the only option for us to have children is adoption. But when I realized how long it would take to fight Russian officials, I had to abandon this idea. I called the social service of St. Petersburg, explained that we want to adopt children, but we live abroad, although we are registered in St. Petersburg. We were told that we needed to get a certain quota from the Ministry of Education and were advised to call the social service of the Leningrad Region. And they said that they have debts according to the reports of independent adoptive parents, and they don’t want to work with them anymore.

There is only one intercountry adoption agency in the UK, with some countries they have been in contact for a long time. Unfortunately, this British agency is not certified in Russia.

For us, this means the following. If we want to adopt a child from Russia, we have to pay 8-9 thousand pounds for checking and preparing documents that we can be adopters of children living outside the UK. After that, we need to independently find a similar agency in Russia. According to the British agency, the services of the Russian agency would cost us £30,000 (that's my annual salary).

After checking with local social services, we could be sent into space or hired by agents 007.

The first requirement for adoptive parents is that the child must have their own room (the size is not important, and it does not matter whether you rent housing or live in your own home). . Then you must provide a certificate of your health, a certificate from the police that you have no criminal record, we also needed a certificate stating that we have no criminal record in Russia. Then you need to meet 8-9 times with a social worker - he asks you about everything, your childhood, youth, draws up a psychological and emotional portrait and makes recommendations on whether you can be an adoptive parent. It is also required to collect recommendations from acquaintances who have known you for at least 10 years, they are asked how you can behave in different situations. Then the commission looks at the report, the people who sit in it ask their questions and then make a conclusion. It indicates how many children you can adopt, one or two, and what age. For example, we were allowed to take children from 3 to 7 years old. After that, information about you as potential adoptive parents is entered into the national registrar of potential adoptive parents. If you are adopting British children, all the costs of paperwork and preparation of the family for adoption are borne by the state.

After checking with local social services, we can be sent into space or hired as agents 007

After all the checks, we had to take training courses - first three days, where we were told about what kind of children we were likely to encounter, and then another special course dedicated to the first days when a child comes to the family. There we learned that the first month in a foster family is usually called "honey", but on the second month the child begins to "try the boundaries" - to be capricious, mischievous, so he tries to find out how much his parents love him. And now they ask you: what will you do if the child came from school, fell to the floor, began to knock with his hands and feet and yell? There is such a method as active listening: you have to make it clear to the person that you share his anxiety and feelings. Then he calms down and can explain the reason why he behaves this way. But in general, social services do not abandon foster parents. In a day or two, after the child is placed in a family, a child psychologist comes to them 2-3 more times, she talks only with the child, and then gives recommendations to parents.

In general, adoption takes six months to a year. In our case, it will probably be six months - we have already found a girl, now we are meeting with her foster-family (family adoption system, or patronage - “MN”), and we will be able to pick her up in July, when she finishes school where she lives. And only a few months after the child is placed in our family, a court will take place, which will confirm us as adoptive parents, and the child will bear our surname.

Russians who have gone to live abroad and wish to adopt a child from Russia are equal in rights to foreign adoptive parents. Knowledge of the language and culture does not give the emigrant an advantage over other candidates for a child. Having received the status of an adoptive parent, future adoptive parents more often, with the expensive mediation of an adoption agency, look for a child in another state. Only accredited adoption agencies can work with Russia - in some countries there are several, and somewhere only one or two.

Marina F., Italy, 50 years old

I married an Italian when I was 40 years old. Moved to Italy, got pregnant a couple of years later, but then lost the baby. The doctors said that I would not have any more children. I proposed to my husband to adopt a child, and it turned out that he was thinking the same thing. In Italy, you cannot be an independent adopter, everything is done through agencies. The collection of documents dragged on for 2 years - the bureaucracy is worse than in Russia. At first, we planned to adopt a child no older than 10 years old, but in the end we were allowed only from 12. As citizens of Italy, we could not do this - after 38 years it is no longer allowed.

She got angry, went and stole my makeup - what would happen if I took a 12-year-old child?

There are a lot of agencies for international adoption in Italy, but they didn’t even want to talk to us, they said whoever they give, they must agree to. For their work, such agencies require up to 30 thousand euros. On their websites, they write which children can be adopted and after how long - usually it depends on the age of the child. Documents are made free of charge, you pay only 20-30 euros for a medical card, but money can be taken for a translator, some even write on their websites what amounts Russian courts charge - up to 15-20 thousand euros. Photos of children are not shown, you arrive and do not know anything about the child, they may not even indicate all the diagnoses, in the end it turns out that the child, for example, is disabled.

I can now understand why there are cases when foster parents refuse children. Once we took a girl from Ukraine as part of a guest regime, she was only six and a half years old, a home child (she lived with her mother and grandmother before the orphanage). She managed to stay in the boarding school for 2 months, came to us in the winter, lived for a month - there were no problems, except that she behaved very independently. Five months later, when she came back in the summer, we saw a completely different girl. First, she became cunning. Secondly, she said that older boys come to their room, make them take off their panties, etc. (at the same time, the teachers are in another building). Finally, she began to steal. Once I forbade her to turn on the VCR herself - it stood at the level of two meters, and I was just afraid that she would climb and fall. She got angry, went and stole my makeup - what would happen if I took a 12-year-old child?

We had to wait 9 months for an answer to the appeal to the court for adoption. Sometimes the courts refuse for far-fetched reasons - for example, when my friend and her husband were called, they asked her what kind of child you want? She replied - I don't care which one, as long as it's faster. Husband would like a younger child. They were told: you are not suitable, you have different opinions about children.

In the end, they also wrote to us that the social services had not done enough work with us yet, and we again had to go to school for foster parents. Then they will again draw up a characteristic for us, and we will again wait a whole year. The lawyer said that this was most likely a polite refusal, and we decided not to continue.

Larisa K., USA (California), age 33

We started dealing with adoption documents in 2005, collected them in 9 months and sent them to Russia the following year. We worked with an adoption agency, and when we started to go through all this, we were immediately told: put away your Russian documents, do not tell anyone that you are Russian citizens. There were no schools for foster parents at that time, but social workers came to us, told us about the risks, about the alcohol syndrome, various diseases. But then I was only 27 years old, I wanted to be a mother, and I didn’t care what problems a child might have - you can’t throw your child in the trash.

Our son Max was abandoned by three families in Russia and one from Israel - when we arrived at his orphanage in Yaroslavl, the hosts were amazed that we agreed so quickly, but we said - we want him and that's it. And it was the best decision we made in our lives.

The first time we picked him up and he started banging his head before falling asleep, I was very scared, no one prepared us for this

He had problems with the kidneys - they said that he would have to do an operation, even with a heart valve, there was a suspicion of hepatitis C. In addition, in Russia he was considered retarded in development - but when we brought him home, he caught up with all the children. But he sucked his thumb for a very long time and beat his head in the crib - this is the syndrome of all small children in orphanages.

The first time we took him away and he started banging his head before falling asleep, I was very scared, no one prepared us for this. It was very scary for me, but I am a believer, and I began to pray - Lord, calm the child. The next day, we talked about this with the curator, and she explained that the orphanage children lull themselves to sleep like that.

When we adopted him, he was 14 months old, and we met at his birthday in September, brought him a cake, cookies, and celebrated with nannies. Two months later we already had a trial, and we took it away on the same day.

In general, the whole adoption process took us about a year, a lot of documents were required - the American guardianship authorities knew more about us than our parents. Financial condition, psychological, three or four times sent fingerprints to different departments, the Russian side also had to send 26 different documents. At the same time, Russia is very picky in terms of their design: everything must be stamped, a lot of paperwork must be stitched, and all documents must be notarized.

In addition, each Russian region sets its own adoption rules, and each judge requires that the documents be drawn up in their own way. But we did not pay any money to the court. The agency then charged $4,000 for its services, but the total amount was about $20 for the translation and sending of all documents.

After adoption for Russia, you need to write 4 reports - for this a social worker comes to you: after 6 months, a year, two and three. Now we no longer make reports, but I still send photos to the orphanage from which we took Max - they still remember us there, they are very happy for him. At the same time, when his Russian passport was running out and it needed to be renewed, it took the Russian embassy a whole year. We live in Sacramento, had to go to San Francisco 4 times - that's an hour and a half drive. If you want to go to Russia, go to the Russian embassy. And when you call them, they send you. I myself waited a year for Russia to give an answer that I was born in Russia and lived at such and such an address.

America could well allow social workers from Russia to come to foster families - if we had such a social service at the embassy, I would gladly let them into the house. Max speaks Russian and has been going to a Russian school since he was five years old. Let them look at his room: he has a separate bedroom, another separate room for toys. He is in good health now, I believe in God's healing and that God has kept him for us. Now he goes to a Christian paid school, he studies well, he is very calm, a real gift.

We were thinking about adopting another child - my son really wants a sister, he recently told me about it. We wanted to start doing paperwork again in January, but now it's forbidden...

As for other countries - Belarus closed the road to the Russians back in 2004-2005, in Ukraine they can only give 5-6-year-olds, more often even 10-year-olds. But I'm only 33 years old, I can't take a 10-year-old yet, not that age. There remains China or Bulgaria, but in Bulgaria children are not given away so quickly and in large numbers, the queues are very long. In China, you also have to wait at least 7 years, they have very strict rules.

Natalia M., Belgium, 42

I have lived in Belgium since 1990, my husband and I have three children of our own, and ten years ago we were already thinking about adoption. For the past few years, I have been volunteering at the University Hospital in Brussels, where they perform liver transplants for children. In September, I was approached about possible assistance for such an operation in Belgium for an 8-month-old girl named Sveta Kudymova (in December, this girl was written about in the Russian media - "MN").

Belgium conducts such operations for adopted children - but after adoption, at least a year must pass. For Sveta, this was impossible - children with a disease like hers do not live up to a year. Fortunately, she was recently transplanted in Russia at the clinic named after. Shumakov - quite successfully, she is slowly recovering. I wanted to adopt Sveta, but I realized that this can only be done within 2-3 years. First of all, because of the situation in Belgium itself.

Our children were already arguing where we would put the crib, they said: “It’s good that we didn’t sell the stroller”

Independent adoption is not allowed, you need to contact the agency, we have only one such organization working with Russia. Even if you do the translation yourself and then certify it with a notary, you need a lot of money. An apostille must be put on an already made translation and certified by the embassy, it costs 2-3 thousand euros. Next, you need to count on an amount from 7 to 40 thousand euros, if the court was refused and you had to hire a lawyer.

Nevertheless, at first I still thought that 1-2 months would be enough for Sveta's adoption. I have been taking care of these kids for a long time. If a child were registered here, we could take care of him. My husband and I were ready to accept it, we have three children, they were already arguing where we would put the crib, they said - it’s good that we didn’t sell the stroller. The eldest daughter is 12 years old, she could help.

But even though I know how to care for such children, I have no advantage under Russian law. There are now several candidates for the adoption of Sveta, four of them turned to me for advice: I explained whether her illness was contagious, how to take care of her after the operation, whether the child would be able to live a full life later.

Welcome

Find us on iTunes!

Popular Posts