How can I find out information about an adopted adult?

You can ask an Adoption Agency or an Adoption Support Agency to act as an Intermediary Agency for you. This could be the agency that placed your child for adoption, your Local Authority or any other registered adoption agency, such as CCS Adoption.

01.04.22 Update

Unfortunately, we are currently unable to provide our regular tracing and intermediary service for birth families. However, what we can do at the moment is establish with you if we are the appropriate adoption agency for you and if we are to hold your details on file until we can allocate a social worker to work with you. If we are not the agency that you need, we may be able to signpost you elsewhere. We hope to resume our regular service as soon as we can.

The agency will establish who you are which involves completing an application form and proving your identity.

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The agency will try to contact the adopted adult and ask for their permission to give you information about them.

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The agency will share with you what we have the adopted adult’s permission to share. This information alone may not be enough for you to find or contact the adopted adult but may include general information about their life since they were adopted.

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Throughout this whole process, your chosen agency will offer counselling and support, as the law recognises that this information can be emotional and difficult to handle. The adopted adult will also be offered counselling when contacted by the agency. You may have to pay for counselling for both yourself and the adopted adult if referred on by CCS or if you choose to gain counselling privately.

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For this intermediary service, your chosen agency will work with both you and the adopted adult if both of you agree to contact. If you wish to make contact, either by sending letters or by meeting face to face, your Intermediary Agency can sometimes arrange this, or if not, direct you to an agency working in your area that can.

For further information for birth relatives on the law around contact, intermediary agencies, the adoption contact register and counselling click here. And for further help with search and reunion, click here.

Contact

birthrecords@ccsadoption.org