We are sadly very aware that there are many people who have been adversely affected by their experiences of adoption as individuals and families, and we absolutely welcome contact from you to offer our support and care.
If you or a member of your family are affected by historical adoption or the recent Scottish Government Study in relation to historic adoption practices, we would welcome contact from you. While we realise that this might feel difficult or counterintuitive if you have previously had a traumatic experience linked to our service, we would reassure you that we are here to listen and do care very much about what you have experienced. We are a skilled, caring and dedicated team who are here to support and help, in any way we can.
Our services at St Margaret’s have transformed in the 70 years we have been operational, and like many other adoption agencies we are committed to ongoing improvement work and are fully committed to keeping ‘The Promise’ for Scotland’s Children and you may find it helpful to read more about this here: https://thepromise.scot
At St Margaret’s, we are committed to offering lifelong support to all children, adults, birth families and adoptive families who need advice, guidance or support in relation to their experiences of adoption with us. We do this in a range of ways. Our practice is in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and we are passionate about being committed to delivering a fully trauma informed service aligned with the Scottish Government National Trauma Transformation Programme. We also have a range of people with lived experience of adoption who work and volunteer for St Margaret’s and we offer Life Story training and other therapeutic interventions. St Margaret’s is also a member of Stand Up for Siblings, a Scotland wide partnership aimed at improving and changing legislation, policy and practice in relation sibling rights (https://www.standupforsiblings.co.uk)
We offer a range of post adoption support services, including both individual, group and peer support. We have a specialist, dedicated Origins officer and Origins service which offers a wide range of services to those looking to access their records, locate birth-family information and birth-family members.
We also welcome feedback from those of you who work within, volunteer for and use our services.
For further information, the full Scottish Government Study in relation to historic adoption practices and the report can be read here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scoping-study-historic-forced-adoption-final-report/pages/4/
The British Association of Social Workers (BASW)is the largest professional association of registered social workers in the UK. The association has a members’ code of ethics that outlines best social work practice and works to support social workers and care managers through education and resources; at St Margaret’s we strive to adhere to this code of ethics and working practice. The link below is to the BASW statement on Forced Adoption Practices and we hope this is also helpful. https://basw.co.uk/sites/default/files/resources/basw_statement_on_forced_adoption-_july_2023_0.pdf
Please get in touch if you would like further information or support. We look forward to hearing from you and are here to help.
With kind regards
The team at St Margaret’s.