The Islington Post Adoption Service works with people who have reached 18 and want to find out about their birth origins. We provide an Adopter's Support Group for adoptive parents who want to further their knowledge on adoption matters and meet other adoptive parents. In line with current law we provide a service to birth relatives affected by adoption and also provide a Letterbox service which involves passing on letters between adopters and birth relatives.
Most importantly we are here to help you find the information you need and to
give advice, support or assistance in making contact.
There are over half a million adopted people living in the UK today – so you are not alone.
If you are 18 or over you can legally gain access to information about your adoption. You can apply to the General Registrar Office to obtain the original record of your birth. If you were born before November 1975, the law requires you seek counselling before access is given to you birth records, of course counselling is also recommended for those born after this date, but it is not mandatory. The counselling deals with matters of adoption tracing and reunion.
If you are a resident in Islington, we can help you locate your adoption file, which should contain details of your life before adoption and the circumstances of your adoption. It should also contain records of interviews with your birth family and those responsible for handling your adoption, the decisions made and by whom. There may be some medical information you may find helpful.
If you are under 18 years of age, and want to find out about your origins,
speak to your adoptive parents. Ask them to share the information they have
with you. If they have very little – they can contact the Islington Post
Adoption Service and we can help by providing information.
If you are a relative who has been affected by adoption – you may be a parent, grandparent or brother/sister, we can offer you advice and help in making contact with an adopted relative. This could include advice on registering your details on the Contact Register or searching from public records. If your relative is over 18 years old we will consider writing to the adoptive parents on your behalf.
We also offer birth relatives seeking information or wishing to trace an
adopted child, a counselling service to help you prepare for the information
you may receive or preparation prior to actually meeting your relative. We
also offer support after you have had a reunion.
We hold quarterly support group meetings discussing all aspects of adoption. We share experiences, best practices, and just talking about a problem helps. We have guest speakers specialising in child development and behaviour, or counsellors helping members of the group come to terms with the past or help manage expectations in the future. We have had speakers who have traced their birth relatives and they share their feelings and emotions they experienced before, during and after the encounter. The most important aspect is the input from the group and the benefit they get from it.
Our groups are made up of people who have been approved or have adopted through Islington or who live in Islington. Overall we have friendly and honest discussions and it’s a perfect time to meet new friends and catch up with old ones.
Go to our News/Events page to find out the dates of our next group session.
Page Last Updated: 31 October 2008