From the Foundling Hospital to the Coram group#
Coram began as the Foundling Hospital, established under a Royal Charter in 1739, and calls itself the UK's first and longest-serving children's charity. Today it is a group of specialist charities and organisations working with children from infancy to independence. The parent charity is registered as the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children, and its campus is in Brunswick Square, London. Between them, the group's services offer free legal help, adoption, advocacy for children in care, therapy, education programmes in schools, and research and policy work.
Which part of Coram to contact#
Coram's contact page has a general form, but it asks people with adoption questions to contact the adoption teams, and people with a family, education or child law question to use Child Law Advice's own contact forms. It cannot take on safeguarding concerns: for a worry about a child, it points to your local children's social care team, and to the police if a child is in immediate danger.
In practice:
- A legal question about a child, including a name, goes to Child Law Advice, the group's free legal information and advice service, which Coram says is used by around a million people a year.
- A child in care or a care leaver who wants someone on their side can contact Coram Voice for advocacy.
- A parent wanting support can turn to Coram Family Lives.
- Social workers and agencies use CoramBAAF for practice guidance and forms.
Adoption at Coram#
Coram has been finding adoptive families for over 40 years. Through its regional adoption agency, Coram Ambitious for Adoption, it works across Greater London and the surrounding areas; it also runs an intercountry adoption centre, the national information service First4Adoption, activity days that help match children with families, and Sibling Time sessions for brothers and sisters living apart. 2026 is the centenary of the first Adoption Act, and Coram is marking it.
What the group says about a child's name#
Coram's own site has no name change page. The group's guidance is on Child Law Advice, whose page on changing a child's surname explains that changing a child's name needs consent from all with parental responsibility, or else a court order, that a specific issue order is the route when someone objects, and that birth certificates are not amended for a surname change. Our page on Child Law Advice summarises it in full.
An adoption order fixes an adopted child's name when it is made; our page on adoption and special guardianship covers what applies if a change is wanted later.
Its legal services, briefly#
Coram's legal and advocacy page lists Child Law Advice, Lawstuff for young people, a school exclusions hub and clinic, Coram Children's Legal Centre's advice and representation, and the Coram Voice helpline. Its migrant children's project gave one-to-one immigration advice and online resources.
This page describes what Coram publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. Coram has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
