Skip to main content

Support For Birth Families

Are you the birth relative of someone who was adopted as a child and want advice and support to try and make contact with them?

If your life has been touched by adoption and you live in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, you can access support from us. We can help if your child was adopted, or if you are a birth relative of an adopted child/adult.

Birth Relative of an Adopted Person

  • Are you the birth relative of someone who was adopted as a child?
  • Are you aged 18 years or over?
  • Would you like support to try and contact them?
  • Would you like to know more about your rights under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and the Adoption Information and Intermediary Services Regulations 2005?

Birth Relative Outreach Support: 

The Adoption Support Service provides a Counsellor who can provide information and support for anyone who has had a child or young person placed outside their birth family, i.e. a young person who has been adopted. As a birth parent or family member grandparent, aunt/uncle, etc) you may have lots of different questions about how these arrangements will affect you and your child.

  • We can try and identify which agency holds your birth relative’s adoption records and obtain information via that agency which may enable us to trace your birth relative.
  • We can offer a limited tracing service.
  • We can provide an intermediary service by making the initial contact with your birth relative on your behalf; helping facilitate an exchange of information and photographs and then offering practical and emotional support to develop that contact, possibly into a face-to-face reunion, should this be what both parties want.
  • We can continue to provide support, if required, to help you with the consequences of a reunion.
  • We can also act as an Intermediary for non-related adults who played an important role in the life of the child who was adopted after 30 December 2005 (for example, a foster carer).
  • We can signpost you to other support services if necessary.

Please Note:

  • We are unable to pass on any identifying information about the adopted person to you (including their adoptive name).
  • Sometimes an adopted person does not want to be contacted by birth relatives.

If your life has been touched by adoption and you live in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, you can access support from us. We can help if you or your child were adopted, or if you are a birth relative of an adopted child/adult. Please contact us on 01480 379679 or email us at AdoptionandSGO.SupportDuty@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

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

Post Box Information

CPA Post Box A4 Flyer151KBpdf
Size: 151KBFile format: pdf

Contact Us

If you would like to access this support, just get in touch and a member of the team can contact you.

You can contact us using our duty email in the first instance
AdoptionandSGO.SupportDuty@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Information and Advice Line: 01480 379679