Early Permanence (EP) placements allow babies and young children who may need adopting to be placed with a potential permanent family earlier than a conventional adoption.
EP enables a baby or young child in care to find foster carers who are ready to adopt them later, if the courts decide they cannot be cared for permanently by their birth family.
Research shows that the longer the delay and the greater the number of foster placements, the greater the potential for damage to children’s mental health and development. EP aims to lay the foundations for greatly improved health and emotional wellbeing throughout the child’s life by giving more stability during the vital early years of development.
Foster carers who go on to adopt a child will often have had a chance to get to know the baby’s birth parents during the court process. They will get to know more about the baby’s background and the circumstances that led to him or her being placed in care, which will support their care of the child as foster carers and adopters if adoption is the final plan. This is also a benefit for contact and life story work if the child is adopted.
People considering EP need to be extremely child-centred and to accept that occasionally babies will return to the care of birth family members. However they will know that because of their thoughtful understanding of a baby or young child’s needs, they will have given that young child an experience of loving family care during this period of uncertainty.
Find out more about Early Permanence here.