About the Scottish Adoption Alliance
The Scottish Adoption Alliance is a national coalition working to improve adoption support, strengthen policy and ensure adoptive families and adopted people are not left to manage complex challenges alone.
We believe Scotland needs an adoption support system that is consistent, specialist, transparent and built around the lifelong needs of adopted people and their families.
Who We Are
The Scottish Adoption Alliance brings together adopted people, adoptive families, professionals, charities, academics and policymakers who believe Scotland must do better after an adoption order is made.
The Scottish Adoption Alliance is an independent collaborative movement initiated through PATCH’s work in Scotland.
A shared platform for reform
We are building a national voice for change: one that is evidence-led, respectful, collaborative and focused on practical improvements to adoption support across Scotland.
Built around lifelong need
Adoption does not end the impact of early adversity, trauma, loss or identity questions. Support must follow the lifelong reality of adoption, not stop at the point of permanence.
Why The Alliance Exists
Across Scotland, too many families describe the same pattern: support is inconsistent, hard to access, poorly coordinated and often only available once crisis has already escalated.
Postcode variation
Families can receive very different levels of support depending on where they live, which authority placed the child and which team currently holds responsibility.
Support too late
Help is often offered only after family life has reached crisis point, rather than through early therapeutic support, respite, peer support and specialist intervention.
Adoption not understood
Generic services may miss the impact of trauma, loss, attachment disruption, neurodevelopmental need, adolescence and identity on adopted people and families.
Our Purpose
The Alliance exists to make the case for a consistent, specialist and accountable adoption support system in Scotland.
- Explain the adoption support crisis in Scotland clearly and responsibly.
- Present research, evidence and lived experience in an accessible way.
- Track Scottish Government commitments and progress.
- Promote practical solutions, reform and national consistency.
- Connect organisations, professionals, families and adopted people.
- Influence policy through constructive, evidence-led advocacy.
Our Approach
We are not here to blame. We are here to build a better system.
Evidence-led
We use research, data, professional insight and lived experience to inform every part of our work.
Collaborative
We believe change will only happen by bringing families, adopted people, practitioners, charities and decision-makers together.
Reform-focused
We are campaigning for structural change, not short-term fixes or isolated responses after crisis has already happened.
What We Are Calling For
Scotland needs a national adoption support framework that matches the lifelong reality of adoption.
A national adoption support framework
Clear standards, definitions, accountability and minimum expectations for adoption support across every local authority area.
Specialist therapeutic support
A transparent national mechanism for therapeutic support, so families are not left dependent on local budgets, waiting lists or postcode.
Better crisis intervention
Earlier help, respite, shared care options and adoption-aware crisis responses before families reach breakdown.
Lifelong support for adopted people
Records, tracing, identity, mental health and adoptee-competent services that recognise adoption as a lifelong experience.
How This Started
The Alliance began with lived experience, but it has grown into something much wider: a national movement bringing together families, adoptees, professionals, organisations and decision-makers who believe Scotland can build a better future for adopted people.
Families began asking difficult questions
Adoptive families across Scotland were describing remarkably similar experiences. They were asking for support but often found services inconsistent, difficult to access or only available once families had reached crisis.
Lived experience brought people together
Through PATCH, adoptive families connected with one another, sharing experiences, supporting each other and beginning conversations with professionals, charities, academics and politicians about how Scotland could do better.
A national picture emerged
Research, evidence and lived experience all pointed towards the same conclusion: Scotland needed a more consistent, accountable and therapeutic approach to post-adoption support.
The Alliance was created
The Scottish Adoption Alliance was established to bring together lived experience, research, policy and professional expertise into one collaborative platform focused on improving lifelong outcomes for adopted people and their families.
PATCH
Passionate Adopters Targeting Change with Hope is a UK-wide adopter-led movement campaigning for better understanding, stronger support and lasting change for adoptive families.
Built from lived experience and collaboration
The Scottish Adoption Alliance has grown from lived experience, advocacy and collaboration across Scotland. Through his role as Scottish Lead for PATCH — Passionate Adopters Targeting Change with Hope — Richard McCombe has worked with adoptive families, professionals, MSPs and national organisations to highlight the urgent need for consistent, lifelong adoption support.
That work helped bring together lived experience, parliamentary engagement and professional concern around a shared message: adoption is lifelong, and support must be lifelong too.
The Alliance builds on this wider movement by creating a Scottish platform for adopted people, adult adoptees, adoptive families, birth relatives, voluntary organisations, professionals and policymakers to work together for practical reform.
The Scottish Adoption Alliance is independent. It exists to bring people and organisations together around one shared aim: a stronger, fairer and more accountable adoption support system in Scotland.
What We Are — And What We Are Not
The Scottish Adoption Alliance is not another adoption agency and it is not a replacement for existing charities or support services.
We are an independent, collaborative platform that exists to bring together families, adoptees, professionals, organisations and policymakers around a shared ambition: creating a better lifelong adoption support system for Scotland.
We believe meaningful change happens when people work together, share evidence, listen to lived experience and remain focused on practical solutions.
Together we can change thousands of lives.
Whether you are an adopted person, adoptive family member, practitioner, researcher, organisation or policymaker, your voice matters. Join the Scottish Adoption Alliance and help shape a stronger future for adoption support across Scotland.