Our approach, values and DDP

Since February 20218 ACE has been the regional adoption service for the local authority areas of Coventry, Herefordshire, Solihull, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Our central aim is to find the right families for children needing permanent homes through adoption, and provide a relationship-focussed service for children, adoptive families and others affected by adoption through offering lifelong support.

We aim to recognise and value people’s differences and provide services that are welcoming and respectful. ACE welcomes enquiries about any aspect of adoption from all sections of the community.

The way we work as a regional adoption agency is governed by a Partnership and Hosting Agreement with our composite local authorities who retain responsibility for the adoption services in their area. This includes the decision making about whether a child should be placed for adoption. ACE in turn is responsible for the preparation, assessment, approval and ongoing support to adoptive families as outlined in our Service Specification.

An established service, we build strong families by promoting adoption as a positive outcome for children who cannot remain within their birth families. We do this by ensuring that prospective adoptive families are well-informed, prepared and supported to anticipate and meet the current and potential longer-term needs of children who they adopt.

ACE approves in the region of 80 households a year and over 100 children are placed for adoption each year. However, there are still children waiting for adoptive families and ACE is keen to recruit more adopters so that children do not have to wait so long for a family and so that the best possible match can be found for each child. We have achieved the Coram Early Permanence Quality Mark and are committed to achieving early permanence for our children, often through fostering for adoption. This is an arrangement where children may live with their adoptive parents on a fostering basis initially which prevents them from having to move between carers.

We particularly need more families who are willing to consider sibling groups of children and more families from Black communities to promote children’s racial and cultural heritage. These children are waiting longer for adoptive families.

We believe there are many advantages to adopting through a regional adoption agency such as ACE. These are:

• We have first-hand information about the children who need families, gained through our close working relationships with the 5 local authority Children’s Services
• ACE embraces diversity; our aim is to treat all people who contact us with fairness and respect, and we will focus on the skills you have to care for children throughout the process. We will also be transparent and honest with you about any area we need to explore further, or where you may need further information, experience or training. At the same time we are committed to our own learning and development as a service.
• We are an established and experienced user-led adoption service with a strong reputation – we have adoptive parents who return to us to adopt again and many who support the service in various ways.

In our 2025 Survey adoptive parents told us:

Our whole experience and journey has been incredible. Very positive.

ACE has a very great educational environment and even if we don’t require the support we know it’s there if and when we require it.

ACE has been a lifesaver to my family in the past. We have received the right therapeutic support (via adoption support fund) and had excellent support from our social worker. ACE understands my family and when I reach out, the response is always ‘how can we help’. We definitely appreciate ACE.

ACE is the only DDP certified adoption service in the world! This means that we embrace the principles and practices of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy - DDP brings together our understanding of attachment theory and developmental trauma that can have a profound effect on children’s emotional and behavioural development and their capacity to build warm and trusting relationships with their care givers. ACE works with adoptive families at all stages of the process to appreciate the impact of their child’s early trauma. This will help them to parent in ways that will enable their child to build trust, feel safe and reach their full potential.

ACE subscribes to two organisations who can advise and provide services to specific families interested in adoption. New Family Social is a charity which supports LGBT+ individuals interested in adoption and fostering, and Coram IAC is for those interested in adopting from overseas. ACE works in partnership with IAC who manage all enquiries that relate to intercountry adoption of any nature. IAC are also a charity and registered adoption agency with a long history of working in this specialist area.

ACE services are delivered through the Hub and Spokes. The Hub teams recruit and assess people who wish to adopt, support them in the process of identifying the right child or children for them, and offer support for up to 12 months after the child or children are adopted.

The Spokes are aligned with the local authority areas and provide a range of ongoing support services to adoptive families as the need arises. This can be social work support or therapeutic services through the government’s Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund. ACE also has a Therapeutic Team who provide individual and group based interventions to help parents increase their understanding and empathy of the impact of their child’s early trauma and the need to build safe trusting long term relationships.

ACE offers long term support to adoptive families through a comprehensive package of training and specialist services to provide you with the necessary knowledge and skills to be the best parent that you can be.

Support from family and friends in your network will be crucial as you become an adoptive parent, and it is important for you to talk to them early on in your journey about adoption and how your child needs to be parented therapeutically. ACE also provides dedicated training for family and friends so that they are best placed to support you.

Adoption is changing and there is far more openness about adoption in society today and for some children it is important for them to maintain meaningful relationships with key individuals in their lives, particularly brothers and sisters. ACE, in partnership with the relevant local authority, will support you to navigate these arrangements as we believe it is in the best interests of all of the children involved to maintain these links. We also offer independent support to birth relatives through our Family Connexions Service and Birth Records Counselling to adopted adults seeking access to their records in addition to services to stepparent families.

ACE is here to support you at each stage of yours and your family’s journey through adoption and will also provide opportunities for you to meet with other adoptive families. We know that there are times when you may not need us at all, and others when things are tricky, so we offer to stay connected with our regular newsletter so you know that the door is open whenever is the right time for you.

We hope you find the website accessible whether you are just browsing or seeking specific information. Please email enquiries@aceadoption.com if you require further assistance or advice or ring 0300 369 0556.