Getting childcare experience during the adoption process

[GreenJoni]

Hello there, I'm right at the start of the adoption process and have a hurdle to overcome, so would be be very grateful for any advice!
I'm single and work full-time but I know I'll need to get plenty of childcare experience. My friends are either not parents or have grown-up children, and there are no young children in my extended family. Some of my colleagues have offered me some babysitting experience for their children which is great, but I think I need as much experience as I can get!
Has anyone been in a similar situation and how did you resolve it? Can you approach nurseries to volunteer? I can't commit to a regular slot but I could take a week or so off work and volunteer for a block of time. Would I need to get police-checked?
Any thoughts very welcome!

[Italiangreyhound]

Hi GreenJoni we are still only at the home study stage so I can't offer advice exactly but only report what I read on here which sounded a really good idea!

Someone, can't remember who mentioned something about going into a local school and asking if they could run something in the lunch hour. It seemed a really good idea but most people, even those who work full time, can have a lunch break and of course the school has a lunch break too and sometimes might run a club in the lunch break. It might be gardening, environment, art etc. Having said this I know it is not everyone's cup of tea but I imagine it would go some way to giving a wide variety of experience over a period of time. A chance to build up friendships with the kids and get to know them.

Whatever you do in a school I imagine you would need to be checked out in some way.

Another option is evening time groups like Rainbows/Beavers/Brownies/Scouts/Cubs etc and there are sometimes Saturday activities too. Good luck.

[Italiangreyhound]

Oh I should say I meant a school near your work unless you work from home or near home.

[flossymuldoon]

My DH was less experienced with kids than me. Our SW suggested we borrow someone else child for a couple of hours every couple of weeks and take them to a toddler group/park/soft play etc. Or baby sitting.
Volunteering at a nursery would be a great idea. I am sure they would just at that. They would want to get you CRB checked themselves as for some stuypid reason CRB checks are generally not transeferrable between organisations (at one point we each had 3!)

We tried to borrow a child but the only person we knew who had a small child (as all my friends had kids of 10yrs + which was the downside of it taking us so bloody long to be parents!) was pretty unreliable and kept cancelling on us!

When we were approved they recommended 'careful matching' due to DHs lack of experience.

[fasparent]

Hi difficult one as mentioned CRB's and so on, think you will be best placed too contact your local CVS , you will be able too register your interest and be put on their mailing list if anything comes up suitable.
The local jobcentre will also do similar.

Kindest Regards

[Happiestinwellybobs]

We did not have lots of experience. Our friends had older children, and my nephews who were 4 & 5 lived an hour away. We had never babysat them overnight or anything; saw them occasionally, changed the odd nappy etc.

The only additional thing we did was to arrange to go in to a pupil referral unit on a supervised visit to observe some of the primary age children in order to understand some of the behavioural issues - although this was not the age of child we were being assessed for.

This was seen to be adequate and we weren't asked to do anything additional.

[GreenJoni]

Thanks for the ideas and advice, that's really helpful.
I thought today that I might be able to volunteer at a breakfast club if I could adjust my start time at work maybe...
It's interesting that SWs seem to expect different things. At the open evening I went to they stressed you needed loads of current childcare experience. I've got lots of experience of teenagers, and have had some child protection training, but they seemed to want so much more than that. It's daunting at this early stage, trying to anticipate what will happen, but I guess as I get deeper into the process it will all become clearer!
Many thanks!

[xigris]

Hi Green do you have any Sure Start childrens centres near you? The one I go to often has work experience students etc. Maybe they'd be able to help you? A lot of them run parenting courses so surely they'd love to help with this sort of situation. Best of luck!