A loving home

Coram is distinctive for its work across all types of family placement, providing direct support to children and families in London through our outstanding voluntary adoption agency and Centre for Creative Therapies, as well as national practice development and matching services, policy and research.

A lifetime of difference – 50 years of Coram Adoption

Coram established its adoption agency in 1972 to find loving homes for children in the care system. In October, the 50th anniversary was marked with publication of a new report, A Lifetime of Difference, and a special event. Broadcaster James O’Brien (below left), himself adopted 50 years ago, Coram adopter The Rt Hon David Lammy MP (below right), Jeanne Kaniuk, who led the service for 38 years and former children’s minister Edward Timpson MP were among the speakers. In the coming year, we will publish the next stage of results of the continuing longitudinal research conducted with the Anna Freud Centre, demonstrating further the benefit and needs of adoption.

Coram Ambitious for Adoption regional adoption agency

We continued to provide adoption services for nine local authorities across London and Slough and were proud to be awarded the national Early Permanence Quality Mark.

Innovation in practice included the development of a new Step Up approach to finding loving homes for the children who wait the longest by combining direct family finding with use of Activity Days, and creation of dynamic profiles. In the coming year, a new outreach worker will develop further links and relationships across diverse communities to increase placement opportunities for children waiting the longest.

Advancing national standards in practice

Coram is the leading champion of early permanence, an umbrella term for certain types of adoption placements enabling a baby or young child to be matched with foster carers who are approved to adopt if the court decides they cannot be cared for permanently by their birth family.

This year, the Coram Centre for Early Permanence was commissioned by the leaders of the Regional Adoption Agencies to develop national practice standards to achieve consistency and coherence across the country with training provided by CoramBAAF whilst Coram-i supported the national data collection and analysis for the Department for Education.

Active Support

We are grateful to the cyclists of Club Peloton, who cycled to PedElle in 2022 and to MIPIM in March 2023, and all our partners for helping us to ensure that children have the loving home and support they need to thrive.

23,392 PROSPECTIVE ADOPTERS FIRST4ADOPTION.ORG.UK

Fiona’s story

Fiona and her husband adopted a little girl, Olive* through Coram in 2018. Since 2020, Fiona’s sleepwear brand Their Nibs has partnered with Coram, donating a percentage of its profits to support mindfulness courses for adoptive parents.

“Adopting our daughter has been the best thing we’ve ever done. Being guided by Coram was key. It’s an extremely emotional journey, no doubt about it. It’s not an easy thing to do but nothing worth doing in life ever is. It feels like Olive’s never not been in the family, I can’t remember what life was like before her. She’s amazing and it’s a privilege to be her mum.

“I wanted to give something back to Coram who supported us so much along our journey. It’s an honour to be able to do that. We’re always looking for new initiatives, imaginative ways of helping Coram. People get a nice feeling buying from small businesses, and the support for Coram is another reason to buy from us, an absolutely valid one that’s close to our hearts. Coram brought us so much happiness – and a magic little person into all of our lives.

David and Marwan’s story

David and Marwan adopted Leila in 2022 when she was just eight months old.

“We did quite a lot of reading around child development and the importance of the early years and decided that early permanence would be right for us. We really wanted to influence and support a child from as early as possible in life…

“You hear from other adopters that they’ve tried four or five agencies but for us Coram felt really natural and right straight away.”

National matching support

Exchange days for professionals and adopters from different agencies, together with Adoption Activity Days provide a unique national service enabling children who are waiting for the loving family they need to meet adopters from any agency.

This year some 400 children benefitted and one in four of them found the loving home they needed, continuing the high level of success and impact over more than a decade.

Mark Cleary, Social Worker, Regional Adoption Agency for Merseyside, has successfully used Coram’s Adoption Activity Days to connect families, most recently for two sisters aged two and four, who have now been successfully placed together. “The Activity Days are invaluable in getting children placed, particularly children who may be harder to place. We have also used the Activity Days for a chemistry meeting, which proved hugely successful in keeping a sibling group together.”

In the coming year, we will continue to pioneer use of the approach in fostering and to support potential adopters to consider long term fostering.

Looking to the future

Around 60 children from other countries are supported each year to join the loving home they need in the UK. The Intercountry Adoption Centre provides the specialist expertise and advice needed in this complex process.

We are proud to welcome this outstanding agency to the Coram group to advance and deliver best practice in partnership with local authorities.

Creative Therapies

In the face of growing demand for services, Coram this year increased the reach of therapeutic services to the most vulnerable children by 39% through direct therapeutic needs assessment and family and creative therapy interventions, and extended school work in Camden to an additional three schools in Lambeth.

In addition, our creative group-based intervention offered to children who have undergone care proceedings, known as Harmony, provided pioneering support to children under five years old and their carers and parents. We are very grateful to Comic Relief for supporting this vital work and for making a difference to children who have experienced trauma and loss.

In the coming year we are developing song writing workshops with the Institute of Contemporary Music and Performance and will advance Relational therapy solutions with families facing adversity under the Department for Work and Pensions’ Reducing Parental Conflict programme.

Parent whose children were supported