Research and reports Latest research and reports Adoption Barometer For the past seven years we’ve been surveying the adoption community across the UK about their experience of life as adopted people and adopters – particularly, the support they seek and receive. These surveys feed into the annual Adoption Barometer, a report that is taken very seriously by adoption agency leaders, politicians and other decision makers. The Barometer covers life from all perspectives – from prospective adopters right the way through to adopted adults. Read the latest Adoption Barometer The APPGAP Adoptee Voices Inquiry Report The report brings together the experiences of more than 300 adopted young people aged 13–25 covering issues of identity, health and wellbeing, and education, throughout teenage years and into adulthood. “Adoptees are vibrant, brave and can contribute so much to society. But to unlock their potential they need the right support. Things need to change, and it can’t come soon enough.” Read the full report Read the executive summary Read the press release Breaking the barriers to school attendance Up to half of adopted and kinship children struggle to attend school regularly, despite a huge government drive to tackle absence. This report explores the reasons for absence and why the need for better support and understanding is critical. It is part of a wider campaign to influence government policies, skill up and support education professionals, and empower kinship carers/adoptive parents and young people to advocate for their right to be in school and in the classroom. Read the report here Get involved in the campaign More research Adoption UK Children's Mental Health Report The right support can be transformative. Adoption UK’s fifty years of experience working with adoptive families tells us that the keys to protecting mental health are to intervene early, to embed mental health support into front line services and to make sure people are well supported in the transition from childhood to adulthood. From Both Sides: evaluating education support for previously looked after children in England As a part of Adoption UK's Equal Chance campaigning, we are calling for adopted children to be given an equal chance to learn. Our latest report reveals that current support measures in schools for previously looked after children are not working, and makes recommendations we believe would have a real impact. Please find the link to the recording of our From Both Sides report launch discussion Please find links to the presentations given by our panellists below: • Rebecca Brooks: From Both Sides report key findings and recommendations • Dr Andrew Brown: Alex Timpson Attachment and Trauma Programme in Schools • Jacqueline Marsh: EPAC and SGO Education Plans FASD: Diagnostic Challenges & Recommendations for the Future In response to growing calls for support and information about FASD from adoptive parents, Adoption UK hosted a national conference attended by a packed auditorium of parents and professionals from across the UK. The conference brought together the foremost authorities on FASD in the UK, united in their wish to highlight the importance of greater awareness and focus on the condition and answer questions from those living with the impact of FASD. This report followed the conference: This report pulls together evidence from a series of roundtables hosted by the National FASD Experts Committee engaging organisations including Adoption UK, practitioners, policy makers, commissioners, public health experts and people with lived experience. Better Futures (2020) Focussing on adopted young people’s experiences of further education, this report draws on semi-structured interviews and survey responses from adopted young people and adults. It explores the impact of difficult school experiences on individuals’ access to further education, the challenges involved in finding appropriate support in further education, and the most effective ways that colleges and post-16 settings can support care-experienced young people to thrive and succeed. Home Learning during Covid 19 (2020) As the nation was plunged into lockdown in early 2020, Adoption UK surveyed nearly 700 adoptive parents about their family’s experiences of education during partial school closures. The results not only provide a valuable insight into the impact of Covid-19 on adoptive families, but also pose questions about what our education system can learn from the lockdown experience. Although many families struggled, respondents reported that more than half of their secondary-school-aged adopted children seemed calmer when they weren’t required to attend school, and one in ten parents said they were seriously considering long-term home education as a result of positive experiences of home learning. Top of the Class (2019) Is it possible to strive for high academic achievement while still giving the most vulnerable students an equal chance to succeed? Top of the Class draws on the expertise of six leading education professionals as well as survey responses from hundreds of UK teachers to examine the way our schools are resourced, assessed and judged and the impact of those priorities on the most vulnerable learners and to pose the question: is there a different way? Bridging the Gap (2018) When Adoption UK asked over 2,000 adoptive parents and nearly 2,000 adopted children and young people about their experiences of education, the results highlighted four gaps which must be bridged if adopted children are to have an equal chance in school: the understanding gap, the empathy gap, the resources gap and the attainment gap. In the face of rising concerns about the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in the UK, Bridging the Gap offers a bold new approach to ensuring that wellbeing is at the heart of our education system. Adoption UK’S Schools & Exclusions Report (2017) Adoption produced a report into adopted children and exclusions rates in school following a survey of adopters. Manage Cookie Preferences