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We believe all children deserve a loving and safe place to call home. Wesley Dalmar operates in NSW to give children most in need a permanent new home with caring parents who will love and support them for the rest of their lives.
Through the adoption process, children are permanently and legally re-assigned to a new family, where they gain the same status as any other biological child within the adoptive family.
For more information, call us on 1300 DALMAR (1300 325 627) or email us on dalmar@wesleymission.org.au
If you’d like to adopt a child, know you’ll be making a positive difference in that young person’s life.
Children who are being considered for adoption are currently in foster care and under the guardianship of the Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services.
If you’re contemplating adopting a child, you’ll go through an approval process to ensure you’re an appropriate guardian for a child.
If you wish to be considered as a prospective adoptive parent, Wesley Dalmar offers a dual authorisation process where your suitability is assessed against the criteria for foster carers and adoptive parents.
This process will equip you with the expectations and requirements of what it means to be a foster carer and an adoptive parent. It also provides us with helpful insights when choosing a child to become part of your family.
If you’re approved during this process and you’re not already caring for the child as a foster carer, the child will be placed with you. Wesley Dalmar caseworkers will regularly review how the child is settling into your home, assess their ongoing needs and provide you with the support needed to enable a smooth transition.
When an adoption is approved, an adoption order transfers all parental responsibilities from the Minister to the adoptive parents. This is a very exciting day for a family! The child is issued a new birth certificate with their adoptive parents’ names listed.
We’re committed to providing children the opportunity to have a relationship with their birth family. For children in foster care who are unable to return to family or live with relatives, Open Adoption gives a child and their birth family opportunities to preserve, build and maintain meaningful connections.
Open Adoption provides opportunities for the child to:
Open Adoption is a lifelong commitment to the child and provides them with a sense of stability and permanency that is formalised through an adoption court order.
At Wesley Dalmar, you’ll be given the opportunity to be ‘dually authorised’ as both a foster carer and prospective adoptive parent.
Prospective adoptive parents must accept that adopted children have more than one set of parents and place value on continued contact and information sharing, both before and after an adoption order.
Permanent foster care is for children who cannot live with their birth families and need another family to care for them until their birth family circumstances change or they turn 18.
Children in permanent care often have complex physical and/or emotional needs. We ensure carers are supported to meet these children’s needs and make important decisions about each child. Children in long-term care retain contact with their birth families.
Adoption is a permanent arrangement that is made by the court if it’s in the best interests of the child and there is adequate evidence that the carer can meet the child’s needs throughout their lifetime without our support.
The child is issued a new birth certificate with their adoptive parents’ names listed. After adoption, the child will still have contact with their birth family and an important role of adoptive parents is to encourage contact with the birth family.
Are you considering adopting a child? Our self-screening checklist below can help you identify whether you meet our criteria to adopt a child with Wesley Dalmar out-of-home care service.
Do you meet the following requirements?
Sign up today and be amongst the first to know about the work we do.
We’re committed to doing all the good we can but we can’t do it without your support.
Wesley Mission acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s First Peoples. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the original and ongoing Custodians of the lands and waters on which we all live and work. We recognise the continuing sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the Australian States and Territories where we have a presence, and their absolute right to self-determination. We pay our respects to all Elders – past, present and emerging – and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images or names of people who have since passed away.
Read Wesley Mission’s Reconciliation Action Plan here.