Adoption Social Worker; Adopt North

About The Role

Adopt London North (Regional Adoption Agency)

Help create new adoptive families. Change lives. Build futures.

We are looking for passionate children’s social workers to join Adopt London North as part of our team preparing, assessing and supporting new prospective adoptive parents.

At Adopt London North, you will help create safe, loving adoptive families for children who need permanence, working alongside prospective adopters, children, families and partner boroughs. We are looking for skilled, compassionate social workers who bring strong assessment skills, warmth and curiosity, and a commitment to trauma-informed, anti-racist practice.

Through our Black Adoption Project, we are removing barriers for Black prospective adopters and strengthening the support, advice and confidence families receive throughout the adoption process. This role is part of that wider ambition to build adoption services that are inclusive, responsive and trusted by the communities we serve. You can read more at  by selecting Black Adoption Project from the main menu.

Adopt London North

We are the Regional Adoption Agency for North London, providing statutory adoption services on behalf of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey and Islington. We are hosted by the London Borough of Islington and currently based in the Laycock Centre, N1 1TH
, with a planned move to new office space in Elwood Street, N5 1EB
. Our team of around 40 staff works flexibly between home, office and client visits across three specialist adoption teams, with opportunities to learn across the full range of adoption practice and collaborate through the wider Adopt London partnership.

Due to expansion of our team, we are looking to welcome two new Adoption Social Workers to our Recruitment & Assessment team.

Your work will include:

• Being part of the recruitment of potential new adoptive parents
• Working with prospective adoptive parents to support, prepare and assess
• Delivering training
• Supporting newly approved adoptive parents through the family finding process
• Providing supervision and support to your adoptive parents as they welcome children into their family

We encourage everyone to keep learning and developing their practice. You will work alongside experienced colleagues, learn from people with lived experience of adoption, and build the specialist skills needed to prepare, assess and support adoptive families with confidence.

Our staff also contribute to direct group work across the service, including group work with adopted children and young people, adopted adults and adoptive parents. This is a growing area of our practice, and there are lots of opportunities to get involved in work that reflects your interests and strengthens your practice.

Across Adopt London, we are investing in staff training to deliver specialist therapeutic programmes in-house, including the Great Behaviour Breakdown, BUSS model approaches supporting sensory integration for children, and Foundations for Attachment, a DDP-based early parenting support programme.

You do not need to have direct experience in adoption to apply - we welcome applications from any experienced social worker with an understanding of permanency work and the needs of looked after children. Most importantly we are looking for social workers with:

• Strong interpersonal abilities – can you build a good rapport quickly and make someone feel comfortable to have in-depth discussions with you?
• Fantastic assessment skills – are you able to bring together lots of different pieces of information and write a readable, analytic, and logical assessment?
• Commitment to learning – do you want to learn and develop your skills, as well as share your experience with others?

We are particularly interested in hearing from Black social workers. Through the Black Adoption Project and our wider service development, we are committed to challenging inequality, improving outcomes for Black children and families, and ensuring Black professionals can shape practice, influence change and feel valued in our service.

We also strongly encourage applicants who are…