Hello, just wanting to make sure you’re all aware of a Facebook group called PATCH.
Its origins are rooted in trying to change the system so that adoptive parents aren’t automatically blamed when things go to shit and it’s very much a campaigning group, but it’s also a great source of support and solidarity for anyone where things aren’t going smoothly or where the wheels have come off.
You’ll have likely seen lots of stories in the media before Christmas about adoption going wrong and children returning to care - that all stemmed from PATCH’s efforts. I don’t work for them or anything, I just know I feel less alone having found them!
The post below was written by Patch’s founder.
✨ New Year’s Eve Reflection ✨
As 2025 closes, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I hope 2026 brings for families living with the long shadow of early trauma, complexity, and systemic gaps.
The New Year is often framed as a “fresh start,” but for many families in adoption, kinship care and SGO, there is no clean slate. Our children don’t get to leave their histories behind at midnight, and carers don’t get to leave behind the weight of being misunderstood, blamed, or unsupported.
My hope for 2026 is simple:
• That we stop blaming families for trauma they didn’t create
• That children’s pain is recognised early, not only at crisis point
• That recovery becomes part of every plan, not an afterthought
• That support and safeguarding work together, not in opposition
• That lived experience is treated as expertise, not inconvenience
This year has been full of movement — conversations with leaders, professionals, journalists, and, most importantly, families. Alongside that, it’s been a year of huge personal moments too: getting married, discovering a love for campervanning, welcoming a puppy, reconnecting with my birth sister, gaining friends I’ll carry for life, and bonding with my daughter in ways that have meant more than anything.
To everyone who has walked alongside me this year — thank you.
To my family who stand with me, supporting me, and holding me up.
To those still in the thick of it — I see you.
And to the year ahead — may it bring more honesty, more humanity, more empathy, and more courage to do change systems.
Here’s to 2026.
Not a clean slate, but a determined one.
#AdoptionCrisis #TraumaInformed #Permanence #KinshipCare #SGO #SystemicChange #LivedExperience #2026Hope