Coram Family

The Thomas Coram Foundation for Children is a large children's charity in London which uses the working name Coram (formerly Coram Family).

It is one of England's oldest children's charities, established by royal charter in 1739 as the Foundling Hospital.

Coram is structured as an umbrella group of charities working with vulnerable children in different areas. Coram's headquarters are at Brunswick Square in London, but they work with children and young people across the UK and beyond.

Coram Adoption is an independent adoption service working in London, the East Midlands and Cambridgeshire. They also work in partnership with local authorities. Their partnership with the London Borough of Harrow was the first use of the model. Coram were also one of the pioneers of 'concurrent planning' (also known as 'foster to adopt'), and received government funding to become a 'National Centre of Excellence in Early Years Permanence' in 2012. In 2015 the British Association for Adoption and Fostering went into administration. Coram took over many of the services in England, offering a total of £40,000 and taking on 50 of the 135 employees. The membership, training and research organisation became CoramBAAF. The Independent Review Mechanism (England) was taken over by Coram Children's Legal Centre. The National Adoption Register for England is now run by First4Adoption (jointly run by Coram and Adoption UK).

Coram also provides sheltered housing and support for care leavers.

Coram provides creative therapies (art and music) for children, either in the new centre in London or in school and community settings in London, Kent, Cambridgeshire and the East Midlands.

Coram Life Education runs programmes in schools to educate children about health, wellbeing and drugs. It was formed in 2009 as an amalgamation between Coram and Life Education. Coram was already working with families affected by drug and alcohol abuse and the education programme allows it to work both on prevention and helping parents talk to their children about the issues.

Coram offers support for separating parents, parents of adolescents, young parents, and parents of particular faith or ethnic groups. They offer particular support in Camden through their Parents Centre and Camden Futures (in collaboration with other agencies). They also run the Family Drug and Alcohol Court in collaboration with the . This team supports families going through care proceedings at the Central Family Court.

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