Ways of Searching

[Familyfinder]

Hi, at the weekend my DH and I went to an Open Afternoon held by Social Workers in a nearby county who showed a film of children that they are trying to place. Apart from this and our Social Worker coming up with profiles of a few children we are not actively looking ourselves. Are there any other ways we could be searching for a child ourselves that you know about??

[Meita]

We're not there yet, but you can sign up to Be My Parent, and Children Who Wait, from Adoption UK and BAAF. You will get regular magazines, depicting a depressing number of kids looking for a family. We are not that far yet so have not signed up, but I have seen samples of the two magazines; there are not very many very young children in them, and most children have some kind of factor that makes them 'hard to place'. (I understand from your other thread that you are mostly interested in a child with few special needs) I still think it would be worth signing up for those magazines (you also get online access). You never know!

[Lilka]

Yes, Be My Parent and Children Who Wait, especially if you are looking for a toddler/school age child or siblings

Are you on the National Adoption Register yet?

There are exchange days held by authorities (where you go round tables set up by authorities and view and collect children's profiles, talk to the SW's and give out your own flyer if you have one), either regional exchanges or national ones. The Adoption Register has details of the National Exchange days, on their website here ask your SW if you would like to go to one of those days.

You can create your own flyer (one nice looking page with your photo, basic details, basic info about the kind of child you are looking to adopt, and your SW's contact details), and send it to other authorities, and hand it out to the SW's at exchange days (which is useful because I've heard of people not finding their child at an exchange day but their childs SW picking up their flyer and then having them in mind when their child became available for adoption)

Some regions hold adoption parties, where you actually meet the children

Those are the main ways I can think of!

[Familyfinder]

Thank you for all your replies we will follow some of your ideas thank you.