Time off/leave for adoption related appointments

[Iggyflop]

Hi there,

We are in stage one. My work’s adoption leave policy only starts from matching. This means I’m going to have to use annual leave/flexible working to accommodate appointments in the meantime. I just wondered how much of my leave I should save back for adoption related stuff? My boss prefers us to book annual leave in for the upcoming year at the start of the financial year to avoid a whole team trying to cram it all in towards April so just wondered roughly how much to save back? I’m taking into account assessment sessions (perhaps 10 half days?) approval panel (day off) a visit during stage 1 to review progress (half day) and I’ve already got prep group covered. So I’m estimating around 7 days. Does that sound about right?

TIA

[CharlieSays13]

I would ask your social worker to give you an idea of how many visits and the duration of them she/he expects to do. Ours came one a week for 13 weeks and now that we're near panel it's roughly a visit every 2/3 weeks. Stayed usually around 3 hours. Often didn't know until a couple of days before when they were coming. We're self employed so not a problem for us to arrange and we told them we could be pretty flexible, but it would have been a lot harder if we were trying to organise AL.

[GiddyGardner]

Hi iggy, I would say to save as much as possible, we are nearing approval panel, we only have a couple of sessions left, but I only have 0.5 days left of AL, and apart from a few days at Xmas, all my AL has been adoption related (My work does have a poor AL policy though). I have communicated this conundrum to my SW and they have been flexible and said they will fit in around us for last few sessions. And communicate with your work, you may need last minute time off, so flexibility is needed all round. Although I would save as many as possible, because you never know what delays you might have (we are pretty straight forward, but we have still had last minute cancellations, and extra sessions), but you do need to take some time out to be a couple and unwind together. So take advantage of weekends away and bank holidays if you can (after all it might be a long time before you get the opportunity to go away again as just a couple ). All the very best!

[Baylis]

Hi, thought I would add my experience. I'm in stage 2 now (very recently) but in stage 1 I had about 15 visits from the social worker which luckily my boss didn't make me use my annual leave for because I worked the time up. During stage 2 I have booked off 8 half days of annual leave because I feel cheeky not using my annual leave!! I also had to book 4 full days for the preparation groups.

Maybe try and use the flexible working option as much as possible - I tried scheduling my appointments around lunchtime so I could incorporate my lunch hour into the meetings. Hopefully you'll have an understanding boss :-)

[Iggyflop]

Thanks guys, luckily I have a super supportive boss and she’s been very ‘creative’ in finding me extra days off (eg suggested I cover bank holidays so I get an extra lieu day for each and can use them when I need them) so I’m really conscious that I don’t want to take the mickey and to save leave as well. At the same time I don’t want to stock pile it all then not need it! I guess I can have a play around and try using flexitime. If I’m struggling to fit everything in (and getting overwhelmed) I can use leave.

Thanks again for your replies x