Bury residents who adopt can benefit from a new support programme to help them build the best possible relationship with their adopted child.

In the first partnership of its kind in the North West, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham Councils (Pennine Partnership) have joined forces to offer the SafeBase Parenting Programme to their adoptive parents.

Delivered in partnership with the charity After Adoption, the programme is designed to create a strong foundation for loving and lasting relationships within adopted families. Parents are able to access the SafeBase training from the early months of taking a child to many years after completing the adoption.

Nationally, one in five adoptions fails due to relationships within the adoptive family breaking down. SafeBase has a proven track record in other areas of the UK in preventing adoption breakdown and encouraging adoption of more challenging children.

The councils’ investment in the programme is being match-funded by the Timpson Foundation and its chairman, businessman John Timpson, who has fostered more than 90 children and adopted two.