local Authority or Voluntary Agency for younger children?

[Poppet33]

My husband and I would like to adopt a younger child below the age of two. We have found a voluntary agency we really like, but we've also been told that it is far easier to adopt younger children directly through the local Authority - principally because LAs will place children in-house first and younger children are always in demand.

Does anyone have any advice please or experiences of adopting younger children? Also, if we did use a LA it would most likely be Wiltshire - does anyone have experienced of them?

Thank you.

LA do tend to place their children with their adopters. Which is understandable, so it is often the more difficult to place children that will be with a VA. but not always!
We have adopted three children, two of which were under a year old and one was 29 months, all through our local LA.
Nowadays the majority of babies that are freed for adoption will have some form of alcohol related problems, which is a real spectrum of symptoms.
It is worth contacting your LA and having a chat with them.

Absolute rubbish Alcohol problems BIG BIG Misconception been a foster parent for 38 years seen many children placed only have Experienced one such child being placed with such problem, sure many are subject too possibility or probable later as they grow up., We have two such children who have been on this journey , both now adults employed and doing well.,

With many adoptive parents have been engaged in FAS FASD Awareness for 20years , there is much negativity around this area often not giving a child a chance , most opinion's imported from the states.
Have two baby's presently subject too possibility but from experience very , very unlikely.

Sorry, fasparent. Are you saying what I said is absolute rubbish? Because I disagree, two of my three children have FASD and I know many more adopted children under the FASD spectrum.
A professional I was talking to not so long age was saying that there are more and more adopted children and LAC that have some form of FAE.

And no where have I said not to give thesee children a chance, just be aware of the risks.

I didn't use a VA but DD came from another LA (so they would have considered placing her via a VA) and she was under 1. However she does have health issues which made her difficult to place. If you are hoping to adopt an 'easy to place' young child (white with no apparent significant health or developmental issues) then your best chance probably is with an LA.

Good luck!

Bit of History yes there are many such situations but is not all endemic too Adoptee's but all children. Adopted parent's and support groups in the UK have been aware of the situation for many years have worked tireless for years with professionals resulting in many advancement's in education, and interventions diagnostics. 10000 midwife's are being trained at the moment a 3 year £4m project, New Diagnostic referral, engaging many professional, Professor Barry Carpenter research into teaching. teacher training FASD now a training module. All this is now available for ALL children but will take time too filter through.
Many reason's some associate it with children in care or adopted children is because people like yourself take great care in understanding children's historic problem's and have a knowledge of which is the best strategy too pursue. Not so when ours were younger 25 years ago no support of understanding then. Thanks too many hard working Adoptive parents things are changing. Gloria Armistead for example has just been awarded the MBE herself a parent for all her hard work.

Poppet just my opinion as an approved adopter who is not yet matched I can't (personally) see any benefit with a voluntary agency. I would be very happy for anyone who has been with a voluntary agency to tell me why they are better.

Some people I know chose voluntary agencies, but I do not know why.

we chose our local authority because they have children to place.

If you are near a border you could talk to all the local authorities and voluntary agencies near you (actually you could do that even if you are in the middle of a county).

Also I would just consider where you live in the county. For example. A county can't place children near where their birth families live, so a very small county or one with few cities/towns might be less appealing to you if you live there in one of the towns because all the children from that town could not be placed with you. If you were out of county or in a big county you may do better. Does that make sense?

Also, any county can only tell you what the situation is like now, or what they think it will be like, but not actually what it will be like in 6 months or a year when you are hopefully approved.

I think I am right in saying the county that has the child in is responsible for proving any support for 3 years so if you adopt from a county very far away this might be harder to access support from, but actuary some may not offer much support anyway. So a larger county quite close to you could be a good bet for having more children and for being able to place them with you if are you far enough away and yet not being too far away to access support if you need it!

Phew, does any of that make sense?

Just a disclaimer I am relative newbie myself but I hope someone will come along and confirm what I say and that I have not got the wrong end of the stick.

Best of luck.

Benefits of a VA as I see them.

You go straight onto the national register after approval as opposed to waiting for 3 months.

If your circumstances are specialised you may find a warmer reception at a VA (we did)

Conventional wisdom is LA= slower to approve, quicker to match. We're pre-approval with a VA and it's taking forever, so haven't found that, btw!

Some people think post adoption support can be better with a VA... ours have dedicated PAS workers, so we're hoping that will be the case

Personally, we are looking at children who would be considered 'harder to place' (sibling group aged 0-6), so couldn't see an advantage in using an LA... And all the LA's we spoke to (3) were very unwelcoming which took the decision out of our hands.

I don't think VA's are better than LA's... But there may be people/circumstances when a VA may be a better option.

All agencies (LA and VA) criteria are different. It's just about finding the right LA/VA for you.

Sorry, one more thing

We were told LA's sometimes send through children's details specifically to our VA to see if they have prospective adopters available as our VA approves families who sometimes have factors that the LA's specifically require. We'll see how truthful that is soon hopefully!

Thanks MrsBW you were one of the 'friends' I was thinking of who went with a VA!

I think Poppet33 if you are looking for babies or young children you will find them on the national register and you will see them on Be my Parent and in children who wait. It is just a case of the level of uncertainty you are happy with. Just my humble opinion. If you really want a very young child with no problems or uncertainties I think you would have more chance with an LA.

As you know, it's been far from plain sailing with our VA Italian but if even so, if we were right back at the beginning, we'd probably still go with them again on balance, for a number of reasons.

But I know most people prefer to go with LA's and agree with your post of 21.25:32

For a child under 2 I would say go LA.

Due to the cost of placing with adopters from other la's and va's they will look in-house first.

In relation to FAS. Yes some looked after children have it but the kid next door may have it - think about the women that had a glass of wine now and again not just those that have an alcohol problem - they have not been able to find a link between the amount of alcohol consumed and FAS

We went with a VA - because our LA told us we were too "white" for them (even though I have some Asian blood). At the time, I didn't realise I could have approached another LA. Maybe we would have gone with an LA if I had known I didn't have to live in that borough.

Our VA got sent through a lot of "harder to place" children - but plenty under 3 and a fair few under a year (actually, I came to the conclusion that I would be nervous about adopting a baby because you wouldn't know necessarily if it had FAS, autism, etc. and for our first child, I wasn't sure I could handle that.

I also thought that - with a baby (not addicted) - most people
Could handle that and it really upset me that toddlers were
often left languishing.

Our DS is so perfect for us - he lived about 20 miles away which was pretty amazing.

Also our VA does have excellent post adoption support. LAs are strapped for cash.

We went with our LA because they told us that 50% of the children they need families for are under 2 yrs old. And they don't have nearly enough approved adopters.
The one reason I would have gone for the VA is that they guarantee support for life, unlike the LAs who will provide what they can according to funding. But the VA were worried about my medical history and were going to hold us up.

post adoption support for children comes from the placing LA for three years no matter where the adopters are from and then the responsibility transfers to your own LA for the child. The VA will provide support to the adopter but if the child were to require therapy etc they expect to be paid for it

What you need to look at is the post adoption support of your LA and the support package that is available when looking at profiles of children.

In relation to the National Adoption Register, all adopters have to be referred when they are approved and made active within 3 months. LA's should refer prior to the three months if they know they wont have a match inhouse.

The aim is for adopters to be matched within 4 months of approval so it does not do the LA's any favours to not be looking for children elsewhere if they do not have a match in house

Very interesting, thanks floaty

in clarification to floatyjosmum, 'your LA' means the LA you live in, NOT the LA that approved you (unless they are the same of course).

So you might be approved by LA1, adopt from LA2, live in LA3. PAS would come from LA2 for the first 3 years and then from LA3. LA1 would never have anything to do with it.

That's interesting too, Meita

Every day's a school day in this place!

I don't think all adopters have to be referred to the National Adoption Registers. It is optional. It says you can self refer if your LA do not but they should and it says "If you have been approved as an adopter for 3 months and your agency are not actively pursuing a match with a specific child you can make a self referral ..."

www.adoptionregister.org.uk/site/page.aspx?pid=48

Sorry... I mean ... but they should if you have been approved 3 months.

We went with a VA

We found that VA only get paid once your matched and child placed so a lot less messing about deadlines we're meet and if there was a issue it was aired.

Also we matched with a baby who was 9 months also we wanted to look nationwide how can you get the best match if your only viewing a tiny number of children

Also we found the VA much more open to us taking the lead in looking for a match

In relation to the la1,la2 etc post. La1 would be involved as they would offer support groups etc for their adopters.

In the regs all adopters should be referred at approval just not necessarily made active. If you've ever seen the register there are lots of inactives on it

Self referral is if you've got a slow agency not doing what they should be doing and they've given adopters some level of control over this.

Thank you all for the overwhelming response. I'll have to have a second read to take it all in! The VA we have been speaking to have been lovely and very responsive, but the comments above are pushing me slightly more towards the LA route simply because they are likely to give us the best chance of finding a younger child. Although it's great to know that there is no wrong decision.

I hate being picky as there are so many oather children out there - but I suppose these feelings are very common in the world of adoption.

Thanks again!