yep choccy you started investigating things at pretty much the same time as we did, but you have been more determined about it all, it seems! Hence a step further now. I too would be interested to hear more about your prep course. Was there much actual 'teaching' where you were told stuff, as in, 'this is how it is: ..' (and was there much you didn't know already?), or was there more of working things out together/in groups, or pointing you towards resources?
Inthebeginning well it's hard! We had initial meetings with three (two LA, one VA). Have decided against VA due to the age of our DS. As he is three, and VA usually don't place many very young children, it would mean we'd be bound to doing concurrent planning with them. CP is something we are quite keen to explore further but at this point in time, we don't want to limit ourselves to it.
One LA has given us very mixed signals. They have some experience with CP which counts in their favour (other LA has no experience). And they are closer to us. At times they have been uncomplicated and forthcoming, very quickly setting up a meeting with people who have adopted through them for example. And according to the adoption scorecards they place a larger number of children each year than the other LA we're looking at. But we (me in particular) have some reservations, don't have a good gut feeling. Things seem to be chaotic, we have been told contradictory information, and the SW who we would be allocated seems to have a negative/pessimistic general attitude, and is very patronising, which tends to rub me up the wrong way. I don't know if we'd 'gel' well.
The other LA 'feels' right and gives us much more confidence, but they are further away and place fewer children, which may mean a longer wait to be matched. They also use agency SWs to do the assessments when the regular SWs are fully booked, and we're not too happy with that idea, that would be a risk we'd run with them. Might turn lucky and be assessed in-house, but maybe not.
Both LAs are part of different, large consortiums. So in a way we're choosing not just between LAs but also between consortiums.
I'm tending towards going with my gut feeling but am usually more of an objective, fact-based decision maker who rationally weighs up the pros and cons, so am worried that I'm getting it wrong!