Getting experience with 0-3 years to help with our adoption

[Baumann77]

Hi All,

I'm new on here, so you might to bear with! We have just had out initial visit from the adoption agency and been told that if we want to adopt toddlers we need experience with that age group. How do both my husband and I go about doing that? We are thinking about volunteering but not sure where to start. We're in the littlehampton, West Sussex area. All advice gratefully received! 🙂

For the baby end of it, volunteer to help at baby/toddler groups or with a Sunday school? For the 3 year olds, ask if you can volunteer as a helper in a nursery class in a school? For both you'll need your DBS checks, and to make a fairly regular commitment. Those are the types of thing I did - you could try getting this moved to the Adoption topic, as everyone there will have had to do similar

Have you nieces or nephews? That was all we did. Any friends you could babysit for? It doesn't have to be (or shouldn't have to be - check with your agency) anything formal.

My BIL & SIL have adopted a toddler & they just had our toddler for a few hours a week & then the SW did a visit and observed them with her?

Thanks all.

When I worked in a nursery we had a lovely couple that came in every week for a couple of hours. They had to be dbs checked and everything.

Thanks ferrynice. That is really helpful. X