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Special Guardians and Adopters Together members feel it is important to be able to ‘tell it like it is’. From ‘good practice’ to ‘this should never happen’, the positives and the negatives of adoption and special guardianship are all important to learn from.

Opportunities to speak out can be very curtailed in adoption and special guardianship because of our need for anonymity and it is imperative we safeguard the privacy of our children. Moreover, our children rely on us to speak for them, especially when they are young or their experiences are too hard to think about, never mind talk about to others – to people they do not know.

There is, in most cases, no other forum for the views, experiences and stories we have put up here, to be brought into the public domain, which is where we feel they need to be. We feel it is important to speak out so progress can be made.

Names are changed, or not given, to protect professionals, children and families.

Preventing discrimination in adoption and special guardianship

Adoption and Child Sex Abuse

When safeguarding agencies take the moral high ground and decide to remove a child

SG&AT response to the government’s new Adoption Strategy

A micro-moment – and some thoughts on the Care Review

All teenagers behave like that!

Speaking out when you need to protect your child and family’s privacy 

Making a complaint – What could possibly go wrong?

How can we make adoption more kind?

What happens if it wasn’t Mum’s fault?

We are not a risk of harm to the children we seek help for

Lets get real about Sibling Group Adoptions

A silenced witness – why co-production is important in adoption and special guardianship

Special Guardianship Orders – are they working when children have FASD?

The Care Reviews ‘big’ question

Adoption Reunifications

Lessons to be learned for the LGO from the Kirkup Report (2020)

Please remember, our children grow up!

A scandalous waste!

Free school meals save lives – by adult adoptee Scarlett Burgess

Special Guardianship Orders – what happens at 18?

Supporting families in crisis and when children leave home prematurely

Preventing professional harm & LGO refusals to investigate complaints about children’s services

Why SG&AT supports Article 39’s legal challenge to scrap SI445

‘A very damaged child’

“I am a model citizen now”

Why is no one talking to us?

Occupation – Adopter/Special Guardian

How can things change if we cannot be heard?

Adult Entitled Dependency in Adoption

Are the Regional Adoption Agencies taking on board adopters’ negative experiences of services?

Negligence through obfuscation

Deprivation of hope and family severance for children in permanence families

Serious systemic failings for childre under permanence orders and for those who care for them

Adoptive mother requests meeting with GMC chiefs to discuss their complaints process

Stop blaming mothers!

Why the parenting from a distance role is vitally important in modern adoption and special guardianship

Why won’t the local authority or the LGO investigate a child’s complaint?

Blamed for causing a child’s despair

This is Child Neglect – a special guardian’s experiences of support provision

Supervision Orders – who are they really helping?

The need for family centred Restorative Practice in special guardianship and adoption

Protecting vulnerable children and families from harm caused by professional error and misunderstanding

Supporting Permanence – together…..

A brief comment about the Adoption Barometer

Court proceedings, assessments, complaints and the slow pace of change

Sliding Doors: A day in the life of an Expert by Experience

Lets not promote adoption…….

Assessment is not support

How can we create change if we can’t talk to each other?

A perfect start to Mother’s Day

The Selwyn Report on Adoption – its recommendations are being ignored

Mother’s Day in Adoption and Special Guardianship

Why has so little changed?

Bereavements and Losses in Adoption

Why can’t our great grandson, under an SGO, access the 30 hours free nursery provision?

A vision of a Permanence Board for all children who cannot live with birth parents

The loneliness and social isolation of young trauma survivors

Are courts the right way to support adopters and kinship carers who wish to provide permanence?

Why is a 17 year old girl who wants to raise her siblings being judged instead of helped?

The child/young person will not engage……

Things that don’t make you any less of a person…unless…

Please think of children who re-enter care at Christmas

Understanding a traumatised child: a parent’s perspective

Superkids with Superadoptive parents and Superspecial guardians

Tackling the care crisis and modernising adoption and special guardianship

Why peer-led research is important

Some thoughts on complex trauma in schools

Are the Family Courts the right place for families?

A cautionary tale of modern adoption for Halloween

Mutual Expectations Parents Charter

The Independent Adoption and Special Guardianship Family Guardian

Why the legacy left by austerity will never end in children’s services

Working with young people affected by complex trauma

Antidote to the side effects of National Adoption Week

National Adoption Week: stories of courage and fortitude

National Adoption Week: Pulling the plug on an adoptive family

National Adoption Week: 149 adopters and 49 special guardians tell us what they think needs to change

National Adoption Week: love, regret, sadness and anger

Support Adoption and Special Guardianship Permanence

A Special Guardian Grandmother’s Story

“It feels like she just walked into my head”

Jake’s Story – An adopted child who re-entered care and was subsequently reunified with his adoptive mother

The real impact of School Exclusion

Adopters and Special Guardians in court – the hidden impact of a Care Order

A concerning consultation about information sharing

Adopting a Child. Mandy’s Story

A personal reflection on the Care Crisis Review by SG&AT Chair

The ‘D’ Word

Help us Create Change Together

Our daughter has a right to family life, not a smart phone!

A Blast From the Past – 2004

A Special Guardian considers FASD

Our Shaming State

Shame and Self Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma – Workshop Review

The Harm of Neglect

DfE’s response to a serious case concerning a previously looked after child

DfE’s response to request for support and to open letter to Children’s Minister

Cases for the SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence)

Modern adoption in crisis: Are current legal frameworks supportive and working for children and families when a child re-enters care?

Autistic children in care

Adopting a child with child to parent violence problems: Iliana’s story

Mary’s Story: When help seeking leads to a child protection investigation

Lisa’s Story: A child who grew up and wanted to help others like him

Jenny’s story: adopting a survivor of child sex abuse

When help seeking leads to blame and removal instead of help

Understandably Distressed Behaviour

LBC Interview with adopters under stress (POTATO website)

Home is where a traumatised child’s problems emerge

Are forensic court processes in the Family Courts focusing in the wrong place?

Adoption in Crisis: time for legal reform

Being assessed to be a Special Guardian – taken from a judgment made by HHJ Stephen Wildbood QC

Adopters in Court – What needs To Change?

Condemnation of Mothers – How does this Help Our Children?

Case Study – EHC Plan for an Autistic Child cared for by special guardian grandparents

Special Guardians and the Adoption Support Fund

Adopted and Special Guardian Children who Re-enter Care

The Value of Social Media Forums to help Parental Stress

Problems we face as Adoptive Families

Adoption cases for the SCIE Project on the Mental Health of Children in Care

Ideas to Support Permanence

Open Letter to the New Minister for Children and Families

Naomi’s Story: Abandoned after the SGO; Too scared to ask for help

Thoughts on being a McKenzie Friend when an adopted child has re-entered care

Thoughts on legal frameworks when our children cannot live safely with family

Why not providing match funding for the ASF is a false economy

Reflections on Lord Justice McFarlane’s NAGALRO speech

10 Good Reasons to Sign Our Petition 

Second Open Letter to Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi

Reflections on a Recent Court of Appeal Ruling about an Adopted Child who Re-entered Care

Why ‘telling it like it is’ is important in Adoption and Special Guardianship

A Special Guardian reflects on Charlie Jackson’s (BACP) Report: Working in the NHS: the state of children’s services

Different Families – Different Needs

Context is everything – especially in court

No one should be above the law – so the law must change

Too Adversarial and Punitive

An Adoptive Parent’s Response to the School Exclusion Review

Parental Alienation – is this affecting previously looked after children?

Please send us an email if you are interested in joining our group, wish to offer support, or would like to work together with us – sgandadopterstogether@gmail.com

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