Who can become an adopter?

To be considered for adoption, you must:

• Have a spare bedroom
• be over the age of 21
• be willing to work closely with social workers and other professionals

Adoptive parenting looks for additional skills including being attuned to the needs of vulnerable children. Alongside nurturing and empathic care adoptive parents are also asked to make sense of their child’s history and recognise the importance of dual identity in adoption.

Therefore within the adoption triangle of birth family, child and adoptive parents, there is an expectation that adopters will recognise the need for their child to have an understanding of and maintain a connection with their extended birth families.

As an adopter, you can be:

• Employed / unemployed
• Single / married/civil partnership
• With or without children
• Any ethnicity or religion
• Home owners or tenants

We will not consider people who have been charged and/or convicted of offences against children.

Moray Council has introduced a policy on smoking, alcohol, and substance use in the recruitment and support of adopters to ensure consistency and positive outcomes for children and young in their care. Further details are outlined here 

In order to be considered for adoption, you must have finished any fertility treatment giving the emotional complexities of both situations.