Adoption Matching Process England: How Link Maker and Family Finding Work

Nobody tells you, when you're working through the assessment, that matching can be harder than everything that came before. The assessment has a structure, a timeline, visible milestones. Matching often doesn't. You're approved, you're ready, and then you wait — sometimes for weeks, sometimes for many months — while social workers look at profiles and have conversations you're not privy to. Understanding how the matching process actually works in England takes a significant amount of uncertainty out of that wait.

How Matching Begins After Approval

Once the Agency Decision Maker confirms your approval, your family profile goes into your agency's active pool. From here, family finding can happen in several ways:

Your agency identifies a potential match. Children's social workers at RAAs or local authorities who have a child looking for a family may contact your agency if they think you could be a good fit. This is the most straightforward route — a direct approach based on your profile and the child's needs.

Link Maker. This is the primary digital platform for matching in England, used by both practitioners and approved adopters. It allows you to browse anonymous profiles of children who are waiting for families and to express interest in a profile, which alerts the child's social worker. You can also access information about Matching Activity Days through Link Maker.

The Adoption Register for England. If your agency and a child's authority haven't identified a match locally, both the child and (potentially) your family can be referred to the national register, which broadens the search across agencies. Agencies are required to refer children to the register within three months of approval for adoption if no local match has been found.

Activity Days and Exchange Events. These are organised events — sometimes a morning or afternoon — where children and prospective adopters spend time together in informal settings. They're designed for children who might be harder to match through profile alone. Some families find their child this way.

What Link Maker Actually Involves

Link Maker profiles provide basic information about children in anonymised form: age, general background, sibling group or not, types of additional needs. You can express interest, but this does not trigger immediate contact — the child's social worker reviews expressions of interest and decides whether to take any of them further.

The process of scrolling through profiles is one that many adopters describe as emotionally difficult. You're reading about children's experiences of neglect or abuse, making initial assessments of whether you could meet their needs, knowing that children will wait longer based partly on whether families tick a box beside their description. It doesn't feel like choosing — but it requires you to make a kind of choice, which is uncomfortable.

Agencies ask you to complete a matching form that outlines the characteristics and backgrounds you're able to consider — age range, types of additional needs, sibling groups. Being realistic here matters both for the child's wellbeing and your own. An honest matching form gets you to the right match faster than an aspirational one.

The Linking Phase

When your agency and a child's social worker both believe a match is worth exploring, a "link" is established. This is formal but not yet binding. You'll be given the child's full Child Permanence Report (CPR) — a comprehensive document covering their history, needs, health, and current situation. You'll also usually meet the child's foster carer, who can tell you far more about the child's daily life than any document can.

This is also when you meet with the agency's medical adviser, who can explain the child's health history and what it might mean for their development. If the child has a particular diagnosis or condition you're not familiar with, this is the time to ask questions and, if needed, seek additional information.

Taking time with the CPR matters. Read it carefully. Ask questions. Some adopters receive a CPR and know quite quickly that this isn't the right match; others read the same level of need and feel immediately ready to say yes. There's no right answer about how long this process takes.

The Matching Panel

Once a potential match is formally agreed, it goes to a Matching Panel — usually held within the child's local authority. This panel reviews the Adoption Placement Report (APR), which sets out the proposed support plan for the placement. The same principles apply as for the approval panel: it makes a recommendation, the ADM ratifies it.

You may or may not be invited to this panel — practice varies by authority. Either way, the outcome is a formal match approval, and introductions can begin.

How Long Does Matching Take?

This is the question everyone asks and nobody can answer precisely. Research and data from Regional Adoption Agencies consistently show that the average time from approval to placement is somewhere between three and twelve months, but the range is wide.

Factors that affect wait time include:

• The age range you're open to (families approved to adopt infants often wait longer)
• Whether you're willing to consider siblings, children with additional needs, or older children
• Whether your agency has children who might fit your profile, or relies on the national register
• Geography — some regions have shorter waiting lists than others

Approved adopters who wait more than six months without a match are encouraged to have a frank conversation with their agency about why, and what can be done to broaden the search. If your agency seems slow or uncommunicative, you are within your rights to push for clarity.

The Emotional Reality of Waiting

The matching phase is described by many adopters as the hardest part of the whole process. The assessment, for all its demands, gave you something to do. Matching often doesn't. You're reading profiles of children who need families and wondering whether the one for you is in there somewhere. You're maintaining your ordinary life while holding this enormous thing in parallel.

Most agencies offer some support during this period, though practice is inconsistent — the "radio silence after approval" complaint is widespread on adoption forums. Being proactive about keeping in contact with your social worker, attending any events your agency offers, and connecting with other approved adopters (through Adoption UK or your agency's peer networks) all help.

If you want a detailed guide to navigating both the matching process and the introductions phase — including how to read a Child Permanence Report and what to ask at a matching meeting — the England Adoption Process Guide covers both in depth.

Introductions: When Matching Becomes Real

Once a match is confirmed, introductions begin — typically over 7 to 14 days. You visit the child in their foster home first, gradually taking on more of the caregiving. Then the child starts visiting your home. Then stays overnight. Then moves in.

The pace is shaped by the child's age and needs. Older children generally need slower introductions. Younger children may manage a shorter period. The foster carer's role during introductions is important — they know this child better than anyone else, and a good foster carer will help the child build confidence in you.

Move-in day is not a finish line. It's the beginning of the part that matters.

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