At Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) we provide a range of services aimed to offer the right level of support at the right time for our adoptive, birth, and SGO families.
Our aim, therefore, is to provide timely support and expertise for adoptive, birth and SGO families post order underpinned by a Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) PACEful approach proportionate to the level of need. The aim being to empower families to go on to help themselves having utilised the clear service pathway. We hold considerable expertise within our service with professionals trained in a multitude of attachment focused developmental trauma informed interventions and approaches that go to specifically to support the recovery from trauma most notably utilising the Trauma Recovery Model, DDP informed techniques, Circle of Security, the BUSS Model, and Theraplay.
Universal Services – Information, Signposting & Training
There are various parts of our therapeutic service that is open to all. We encourage families to contact us early as no issue seen as too small. To this end, we’re here to support in several ways:
- Providing Information and advice from specialist workers where needed including Letterbox Coordinators, Duty Social Workers, and our Birth Relatives Outreach Counsellor.
- Support from our duty Social Workers ensuring families reach the often wide ranging support they need in a timely way.
- Signposting to relevant and helpful groups and organisations including within the wider Local Authority, charities and specialist organisations.
- Offering groups for our adoptive families and signposting to already existing local groups for SGO families with whom we have close links
A tiered approach to support services:
It is our aim to empower parents/carers by providing the right level of support when needed. It will always be our aim to support families to access the services and support immediately available which is sustainable and will include from family and local support networks as well as universal community support alongside our specialist offer as an RAA. We recognise however that over time, the level of need families experience means that more targeted support is needed, and we are here to ensure that we support families to accessing this.
To ensure that we offer the right level of support to as many families as possible we offer a tiered system of support which is easy to understand. This is described below.
Adoption and Special Guardianship Allowances
There is financial support available to adopters and special guardians and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Adoption support with implementing these allowances.
These documents provide additional information about what support is available.
If you have secured an Adoption Order or Special Guardianship Order, please contact the finance teams direct and they will help answer your queries.
If you child was placed by Peterborough City Council please contact placementcosts@peterborough.gov.uk
If you child was placed by Cambridgeshire County Council please contact Fostering.Finance@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
In other circumstances, please discuss this with your Social Worker who will support you through the process.
The Adoption Support Fund (ASF)
Information for Families
The adoption support fund (ASF) provides funds to local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs) to pay for essential therapeutic services for eligible adoptive and special guardianship order (SGO) families.
For more information go to Adoption support fund (ASF) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Support Groups
We host a number of Adoption Support Groups across the region where families can come together and share experiences.
For information contact: SupportGroups@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Post box
Letterbox contact is a formal arrangement for Birth Relatives and Adoptive Families to share information. This is a confidential service. If you have any questions or queries about initiating or existing Letterbox arrangements, please contact postbox@cambridgeshire.gov.uk if your child is from Cambridgeshire; or if your child is from Peterborough, please contact Peterborough.Postbox@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Contact the ASF
For up to date information, if you have any queries, or you might want to check the eligibility criteria please refer to the Government ASF website here Adoption support fund (ASF) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The team can also be contacted by way of email and telephone below.
Email asf@mottmac.com
Telephone: 01223 463 517
Contact Us
For information about our Adoption & Special Guardianship Support Services, contact our us at:
AdoptionandSGO.SupportDuty@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
01480 379679
For information about Support Groups
Contact our Support Group team at: SupportGroups@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
All Other Enquiries
For all other enquiries, please contact us at: adoptionenquiries@cambridgeshire.gov.uk