time off for appointments

[MrsH1989]

Hello, just in need of a bit of advice. Because we are an hour away from our chosen LA, our appointments are often long or in the middle of the day which means taking whole or half days off work. We also have prep in Jan which is 4 days off work. I cannot find anything online saying what we are entitled to during the process. Everything just relates to appointments after you have been matched with a child. Any ideas what we are entitled to?

Hi, the recent changes allow for up to five (I think) meetings but these meetings are post linking. No entitlements prior to that unless your company have a generous adoption policy. I asked for some of my home study meetings to be doubled up and in reality we got through about 2.5 meetings worth of questions as my SW didn't have to factor in all the extra travel time! I also asked for first or last appointments in the day and used my holidays so half a days holiday could be very productive. My LA also offered evening prep classes. It did mean 8 evenings rather than 4 days but saved holiday days for better use. Best of luck X

Hi MrsH - we were an hour from our chosen LA too, and just had to take about ten days' worth of unpaid leave over the 6 month assessment! I'd used up my holiday on actual holidays and there are no structures in place to pay prospective adopters for the time they take off. Fortunately my boss knew that we were going through the process so I could just holler "Social worker" on my way out the door and he understood.
Still not ideal with the loss of earnings.

It never ends! I have taken about a third of my annual leave this year to attend therapeutic assessments, therapeutic parenting training etc...

I was very lucky with my work as I only had to take annual leave for the training. My line manager was very supportive and I was able to work from home on the days of the meetings and make up time in the evenings and I also volunteered to do some weekend work to offset against the hours I had missed.