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Adoption Application

If you are interested in adopting a child, you need to contact an adoption agency. The five Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland each run an adoption agency. You should contact the Trust in the area where you live.

There are also three voluntary adoption agencies which are inspected and vetted by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS).

The adoption agency manages your application. The application process to become approved to adopt takes about eight months to complete. This involves a social worker interviewing you at home to collate a home study. The social worker discusses your reasons for wanting to adopt and assesses your eligibility to act as a permanent parent to a child. Your GP will also be consulted for a professional assessment on your general health. Any criminal convictions you have will be taken into account.

The social worker reports to an adoption panel who decide on whether to approve or reject your application.

Approval is made by an adoption panel. You can attend when they meet to consider their decision. By getting to know you and your lifestyle, the adoption panel assesses if you are suitable to become a parent. If you are approved, you are registered on the adoption waiting list until you are matched with a suitable child.

When you are matched with a child, you are informed about the child's background and upbringing. This information makes you aware of any trauma or abuse experienced while the child lived with the birth parents.

You can withdraw from the adoption system and decide not to adopt a child who is matched with you. You need to inform the adoption agency that you cannot offer the child a home.

The adoption goes ahead when you are recognised in law as the child's parent. This happens when a court judge, acting on advice from the adoption agency, grants you an adoption order.

The new relationship is formalised with this adoption order, affirming the legal relationship between an adoptive parent and an adopted child. The birth parents lose all rights to care and raise the child. In many cases after a child is adopted, all links with the birth parents end. Sometimes the birth parents have authorised indirect or direct contact with the child.

If you adopt a child within Northern Ireland, the application process is free from start to finish.

Find out more about the adoption application process.