All local councils have a statutory responsibility to provide an adoption service.
In addition to the local council, there are a number of adoption agencies approved by the Secretary of State for Health to provide an adoption service. Those agencies marked with an asterisk have been approved to act independently of local councils in intercountry adoption applications. In seeking to recruit adopters, no applicant will be excluded from consideration purely for reasons of race, marital status, religion or sexuality. At the moment 10 adoptive families are being assessed and in 2000 we successfully placed 11 children with adoptive families. Barnet welcome applicants who are interested in adopting children who are over 3 years old and brother and sister groups.