Adoption Barometer 2026: established adoptive families (Scotland)

What is going well? 

“Knowing that there is support to access is reassuring. Our social worker has always been responsive and supportive. We have had support with school difficulties in the past year which has been very helpful.” 

“Social workers are incredibly supportive, as is our local high school which has undertaken The Promise training.” 

“Our adoption agency runs regular, accessible parenting courses and groups and have made a significant effort to increase opportunities for adopters and their children to meet in informal settings . . . All this reduces isolation, increasing experience and information sharing and is so vital!” 

“I think that the existence of the Care Experienced Children & Young People Fund is a good thing. I was able to access Art Therapy for one of my children through that. It should be publicised though, and able to be used more flexibly.” 

What could be improved? 

“Post adoption support assessment as standard at key transition points, i.e. starting school, moving to secondary and school leaving, with the option of support if needed.” 

“A statutory, legal obligation on local authorities to provide post-adoption support services as part of National Guidelines would support delivery of consistent and more effective support across Scotland.” 

“Educating school staff about the lifelong impact of being adopted. We tend to get support from school through the neurodiversity route, but this ignores the additional issues that adoption brings to their learning and development.” 

“Professionals need a greater knowledge of FASD so they can support families with children who have this diagnosis.” 

Adoption Support 

Nearly half of respondents in Scotland had contacted their adoption support agency during 2025 with a request for help with a specific situation and more than half of these said they were experiencing significant challenges or at crisis point at the time of asking for help. 

“We need more support when a child is in crisis, not waiting weeks for a response from a social worker.” 

“The variation in post adoption support between different agencies and different is staggering and massively unfair and inequitable for the children. It is amazing that there is allowed to be such an inequitable system for care-experienced children, just because they have been adopted through different agencies.” 

Keeping in Contact with Birth Relatives 

Agreements to maintain indirect contact with birth relatives are less common in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK. 53% of respondents reported ever having agreed to maintain indirect contact (compared to 80% UK-wide).  

As in the rest of the UK, at the time of completing the survey, most of these agreements were no longer active. Just over one third of respondents were still in contact with their child’s birth mother, and around one quarter were still in contact with their child’s birth father, siblings, or wider family members. 

“Our issue has been informal contact by my child’s birth mother (in addition to formal contact) which has caused great distress to my young person and has been hard to manage. Better support would have been helpful.” 

Education 

“We need trauma and attachment training for all teachers in all schools – state and independent, and educational support for all adopted children in school, right through to S6.” 

“I have to do all the legwork to make sure my child gets the support she needs in school and the things she is legally entitled to. The Promise is a lovely document but it needs to be used in practice!” 

“I really feel that having a ‘case manager’ would be invaluable for those facing school-related issues. They could support the family directly, advocate for them and liaise with education and other service providers.”