Adopting a child is a decision involving the whole family.

Before beginning your adoption application, we advise you to thoroughly discuss your plans with the whole family and your close friends and ensure everyone is committed and able to offer support when you need it. Being able to demonstrate a strong network of support can be an advantage during the family finding stage.

Adopting when you already have birth children, like any adoption, is rarely straightforward. It can have many advantages – you will hopefully already have a wealth of parenting skills under your belt, for example – but it can also be challenging.

We ask all prospective adopters who already have children for an age gap of at least two years between the youngest in your family and an adopted child, this will help you to meet their individual needs

Your Diagrama Adoption social worker will be able to discuss with you all the considerations, help you to identify potential challenges you are likely to come across and ways you can approach these to minimise any anxiety.

This article, Birth Children and Adoption, from AdoptionUK, offers helpful tips from other adoptive parents.