Vision
The Coram Centre for Early Permanence is dedicated to providing more children in care proceedings with the opportunity to live with their forever family at the earliest possible stage – – providing emotional, physical and legal security and a sense of security, continuity and commitment.
We focus on young children, as early years are crucial in a child’s development and capacity for forming secure attachment. Permanence can be provided through family and kinship placements, long term fostering, special guardianship orders and adoption.
Mission
Our mission is to promote high standards of professional practice in the field of early permanence planning, which includes both concurrent planning and Fostering for Adoption. Both these models are designed to provide vulnerable babies and young children with dedicated care from families who commit to either restoring them to the care of their parents or extended kin, or to adopting them dependent on the outcome of care proceedings. It essential that such carers are fully prepared for this challenging task and that they understand the commitment they make.
The local authority’s responsibilities include assessing the child’s parents’ or extended family members’ ability to provide safe care for the child over the long term. Parents and family members should be supported to undertake care where this is consistent with the child’s welfare and where this can be achieved within the child’s timescale.
Many local authorities and Independent Adoption Agencies have developed excellent practice in this field. This work has been supported by policies and procedures and involving systemic work across children’s teams, adoption and foster care teams, as well as legal departments, independent reviewing officers, children’s guardians and the courts. We offer a national platform for adoption agencies to come together, share dilemmas, and develop new approaches to complex problems in order to drive the sector forward and best meet the needs of children and families.
The Coram Centre for Early Permanence provides agencies access to:
- The Coram Early Permanence Network, which provides support to help initiate and embed a programme of early permanence work. This includes both concurrent planning and fostering for adoption best practices, and also offers the option of purchasing additional support for implementation. The offer is available to local authorities, Independent Adoption Agencies and Regional Adoption Agencies, with a focus on relevant work streams.
- The application for the new independent Early Permanence Quality Mark, which gives recognition for excellent practice and is supported and endorsed by the Department for Education.
- The updated Good Practice Guide on Foster for Adoption in Early Permanence 2017, published by CoramBAAF.
- Videos and learning resources.
- Relevant professional events with networking opportunities.
Find out more
Coram Adoption is one of the largest and most highly acclaimed independent adoption agencies in the UK. In 2016/17, Coram’s adoption services were influential in 10% of adoptions across England. Visit our adoption website to find out more about how to adopt a child with Coram.
Coram-i works with local authorities to help them improve their services for looked after children. Its diverse team has developed a strong reputation for delivering high quality and effective support.
CoramBAAF is a multi-disciplinary organisation which supports adoption agencies and professionals dedicated to securing the best outcomes for children separated from their birth parents.