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Social Work vocabulary · Children, Families and Care

Adoption

Meaning in social work, with examples

/əˈdɒpʃn/nounCore term

In social work, adoption means: The legal process by which a child permanently becomes a full member of a new family and parental rights pass to the adoptive parents.

In Turkish: evlat edinme, evlat edinilme

How it is used

Social workers assess and approve prospective adopters, match children with families and offer post-adoption support. People adopt a child, and the child is adopted; birth parents and adoptive parents are the usual terms.

Example sentences

  1. The adoption was finalised in court last month.

  2. Adoption support services help families when children start asking about their past.

Common collocations

  • place a child for adoption
  • adoption panel
  • adoptive parents
  • post-adoption support
  • adoption order
  • foster careA form of care in which a child who cannot live with their own parents lives, for a short or long time, with another approved family.
  • placementThe home or setting where a child in care or an adult needing care is placed to live; also a period of supervised practice for social work students.
  • kinship careCare of a child by grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings or close family friends when the parents cannot look after them.
  • looked-after childA child who is cared for by a local authority, for example in foster care or a children's home, either under a court order or with the parents' agreement.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Children, Families and Care

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