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Tel: 0113 388 5400
Fax: 0113 388 5401
Email: info@catholic-care.org.uk
Do you only work with Catholics?
No. Our aim is to serve the whole community, regardless of race or faith. Please see our Mission Statement.
Are you a national organisation?
No. We are one of many Catholic Social Welfare Agencies throughout England and Wales. Each agency works is a separate charity and is independent of the others. Nevertheless, a strong spirit of co-operation exists between all agencies. The umbrella organisation is Caritas Social Action Network.
How is your work funded?
Catholic Care raises funds for charitable purposes from the Catholic Community within the Diocese of Leeds and from grant making bodies. Our services are supported and delivered in partnership with the voluntary, independent and statutory sectors, schools, parishes and local authorities.
What is the Diocese of Leeds?
The Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales is divided geographically into Dioceses. The Diocese of Leeds was founded on 20th December 1878, with the splitting of the Diocese of Beverley which had covered all of Yorkshire. The Diocese of Leeds was made to cover the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, while the Diocese of Middlesbrough took over the organisation of the rest of Yorkshire. Catholic Care has strong ties to the Diocese of Leeds.
What do Catholic adoption agencies do?
- They recruit adoptive parents, married or single people for children who are unable to remain with their family of birth and find permanent, loving placements for children many who have special or complex needs.
- We also provide a range of other services including residential children's care, and many different types of preventative family support work.
- They have specialised skills in placing children who have complex backgrounds, histories of physical and sexual abuse, sibling groups, or those who require therapeutic support throughout childhood and into adulthood.
- They have a reputation for low rates of disruption, despite placing children with the most significant and difficult background and life experience.
How are they funded?
Catholic Care, as a registered voluntary adoption agency and charity meets all the costs of adoption assessment services out of its own resources. An inter-agency reimbursement is made if a child is successfully placed with parents approved by Catholic Care. This reimbursements enables Catholic Care, which has recruited and approved the prospective adopters through our adoption panel, to recoup part of our costs. The money received does not cover the full costs of providing the service which falls to the charity.
What do we specialise in?
We specialise in finding families for children who have Special Needs / Sibling group / Ethnic minority Placements and Older Children. Local authorities approach Catholic voluntary agencies usually when they cannot make a placement from within their own resources. The children are usually older, sibling groups, and there is a particular need for black or mixed heritage parents as well as older children. Statistical data demonstrates that Catholic adoption agencies place a higher proportion of children with special needs than either local authorities or other voluntary adoption agencies
Some facts
Statistics show that in 2004-5, collectively the Catholic adoption agencies:
- Approved 176 families to adopt during the year. This represents 32% of the total number of families approved by the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies.
- Placed 227 children for adoption. This represents 32% of the total number of children placed for adoption by the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies.
- Were granted 194 Adoption Orders. This represents 32% of the total number of adoption orders that were granted to the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies.
- Had a disruption rate of only 3.6% for children prior to their legal adoption (this represents 7 children experienced disruption of their adoptive placement prior to legal adoption). This is in contrast to a disruption rate of 7.9% for other voluntary adoption agencies that are members of the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies and compares even more favourably with the estimated 1 in 10 of children disrupted when placed by local authorities.
Catholic Care acts to support those in need of its services, especiallly the weak and the vunerable and it acts as an advocate for those unable to represent themselves
The primary purpose of the agency is to foster and influence a vision of how people can live together in Christian charity, love and justice, by taking the "Caring Church into the Community
