What we do
Our activities include:
- Family finding: Our online service and monthly newspaper, Be My Parent, helps find families for hundreds of children every year. Similarly, Scotland’s Scottish Children Waiting helps link children with families across Scotland. We also run the Adoption Register for England and Wales and support various consortia. Together, our services help agencies find hundreds of adoptive and permanent foster families for children every year.
- Publications: We publish an extensive list of highly respected expert publications for social workers, adoptive parents, foster carers, children, adopted adults, students and academics, and the wider children’s workforce, covering a range of issues relating to adoption, fostering and children in the care system. We also publish the UK’s only journal dedicated to adoption and fostering issues.
- Training, conferences and consultancy: Our training, seminars and conferences tackle the vital issues facing practitioners today and our courses and programmes are available nationwide. Our consultants carry out expert independent assessments of local authority adoption and fostering services and are regularly asked for advice on complex cases.
- Campaigning: We campaign nationally and locally to improve the lives of children seperated from their birth families. Our flagship campaign is National Adoption Week, which runs in November every year.
- Membership: we are the UK's leading membership organisation for agencies and individuals that have an interest in fostering, adoption and the well-being of children.
- Advice: Every day our members ask BAAF for expert guidance to support their work. We also receive thousands of calls each year from people who need advice about all aspects of adoption and fostering.
- BAAF is registered as a Voluntary Adoption Agency and Adoption Support Agency with Ofsted. View our Statement of Purpose (PDF)
