LA's told to work together shorten foster stays - Reported by the BBC today

[oasiswaterpool]

Could this be the news we have been waiting for? Will this move the process along and shorten adoption process waiting times?

I think it will result in more breakdowns. I work with children whose adoptions have broken down. I can't get excited about this news.

I think something which widens the pool of adoptive parents a social worker can look at when choosing parents, is a good thing, giving a better chance of getting a good match. None of my children were 'in house' matches for me. But what about the monetary aspect of picking adopters from a different LA or a VA? If they don't alter that, you'll still get the problem of it being cheaper to go with a local match even when it may not be the best option for the child. It might help children find matches quicker, but I will wait to be convinced by statistics.

What it won't alter is the number of children being put forward for adoption or granted PO's - if those numbers continue to fall, prospective parents will continue to wait longer for matches (on average).

Basically it all depends on what exactly is causing the delays in different areas. How much is delay due to fewer children being put forward for adoption vs. waiting children living in different places than waiting parents? How big a mismatch is there between the children waiting right now, and the children prospective parents are approved/want to adopt?

Adoption Link shows that there are 3 or 4 times the number of adopters in an area than there are children waiting to be adopted in that area. If SW's have spent the time and money to share a child's details on there, they are probably the ones waiting that are being talked about in this interview. It says to me that perhaps it is generally a mismatch of types of children waiting and those potential adopters wish to adopt, for those waiting '18 months+'.

However, he states there are 180 separate agencies in the UK, only 100 are registered on adoption link (a good sign they are the pro active ones who look countrywide) so if it spurs some others on to more open minded, that need to be, it could help a little bit. However, he is firmly putting all this on LA's to figure this all out themselves, he's not actually saying the government are doing something about it, so that doesn't sound hopeful when dealing with an already over stretched service with little time.

In my opinion, anything that helps the child find the best match, not the most convenient is a good thing, as is any positive media focus on adoption and improving services. However, I don't think this will massively change anything regarding adopters waiting times right now. His mention of a review of special guardianships could, if these are found to be being used in the wrong circumstances because of recent case law, though it could be found these are more appropriate and just need more funding for support post them being granted.

The government have already changed adopters taking 1-2 years to get approved to just 6 months, I can't see what more they can do to speed up adoption times for adopters or children, other than forcing agencies to merge and have just one pot of money between them, which there are probably a lot of negatives for doing too.

We keep being told there are more approved adopters than children right now, so I agree with Lilka, it really depends on the reasons. And why do some areas have lots waiting when there are so many adopters nationwide?

But on a positive....like I said, any talk about it is a good thing for waiting children and waiting adopters Oh and I'm often wrong, there's that too

Good luck with your search for your forever family, the waiting is hell but it will be worth it. This is one of the hardest bits emotionally but it ends eventually in the best of ways.

Unfortunately Suit's are not on the ground and in the real world , as we see in the drop in adoption's results of last Gov. initiative's, will only result in fewer. Each placement will still be different and will dependent on child's need's and circumstance's .

We get the newsletter from a neighbouring (large) LA and the most recent one stated that the average time from PO to matching had come down to just under 6 months. The same newsletter stated that they had (many) more adopters than children and therefore were only recruiting new adopters who were willing to consider children with significant additional needs etc.

If there are so few children getting POs, and so many prospective adopters waiting for them, why does it take half a year from PO to matching? Surely if you're a LA and you are only putting very few children forward for PO - many fewer than e.g. last year - and you have lots of approved prospective adopters on your books, you will be thinking about/discussing potential links for a child well before the PO actually comes through. Then, the day after PO comes through, links can be concretised and within a couple of weeks, a date for matching panel can be booked.
Well but clearly it doesn't work that way. I believe that an important reason for children with POs having to wait for a match lies in local mismatches between children and prospective adopters, in conjunction with reluctance to search outside of one's own LA, and with a lack of efficient regional/national 'search' tools thrown in.

The article has statements from local governments/LA saying that they do work together with others already. Well, great for them! But clearly not all do. And those that don't are failing the children they should be caring for, IMO.

I presume they measure it from date of placement order to date of matching panel, to be able to use clear dates for stats?

If they do, it takes time to wait for a panel space, if there is more than one adopter they have to compare all on paper, then they have to meet with the best matches, then have meetings between colleagues to do matrixes to compare possible adopters, then meetings for adopters to meet foster carer, medical advisor etc., all which get delayed here and there if all can't do the date. Then of course there is all the paperwork the SW's have to do and some adopters will find out info and choose to not go any further, so SW's have to start over. Even if you look further afield it could take just as long, if not longer as you're dealing with people further afield for meetings.

We had already had meetings about our LO'S while they waited for their PO court date (no photos, names or identifying details given to us, as not allowed), just seeing if we would be interested with the basic info they could give us, should adoption be chosen as the option for them, as it was quite likely, they couldn't proceed much more than that. We have an excellent and efficient LA and we were their only match for them, but it still took a couple of months between PO and matching panel for all the meetings etc., so can see up to 6 months being quite likely, with many adopters to read about and assess. If they tried to speed any of that up, chances would be that it could risk match breaking down I would think, as not all the assessment and info gathering opportunities for adopters would get done. I do know of others where delays have been made as match is talked about at time of PO being granted, but then another birth family member is found, who needs to be assessed or has been assessed but is appealing the decision, which holds stuff up too. Again that needs to be done as the child staying within the birth family, if possible, is still the best option, but it can cause a major delay.

Sorry 64x32x24, just seen your other post and now realise you'll know all that, cause you've already been through it! So the only point that needed to be mentioned was that half of it can't go on prior to PO being granted as they can't share details properly with adopters at that stage, or at least that was how our LA functioned and makes sense. :)