Choosing an adoption agency

[Britchick79]

Hi all,

I have been thinking about adoption for a long time, but recently decided to get the ball rolling and sign up with an agency.

Based on some initial searches, there seem to be loads of agencies that cover my area (London) and I was wondering if people who have been through the process had any recommendations about what to look for, or what kind of questions to ask to determine which one would be most suitable? I understand the process is similar across voluntary and LA agencies? So is it about the particular social worker? Are some of them quicker? More or less likely to find a suitable match? More warmly disposed to people from non-conventional set-ups? (I am single, female, in my late 30's).

Recommendations welcome if anyone has used an agency covering London.

Thanks in advance all,

Jen xx

Hi there, we went with a local authority. Mainly because we were told they are more likely to place very young babies with their own parents rather than those at a voluntary agency. Voluntary agencies do not have any children in their care. They assess parents and then look to LA's for a child.
The LA then have to pay the VA £28k I think for finding parents for a child in their care.
From what I have heard VA are faster to assess but that does not mean they would find you a match any quicker. We had a match with our LA after a week of being approved. This is very quick!!
LA also have all the problems you expect from a council service- poor communication, lose paperwork constantly, crap management, low budget everything!
Our social workers however were great.
Hopefully someone can give you a experience of a VA.

I was a single adopter too. I went with LA for all the reasons above and also experienced the frustrations above. Like lucky I was matched very quickly after approval (about a week I think for the first stage of the matching process). However, this was a good few years ago and I think things can be somewhat slower post approval now.

My SW was ace, very efficient and lovely and supportive to boot. DD's SW was fine, a perfectly pleasant person but utterly snowed under with a ridiculous caseload and this did cause delays (although my SW was pretty hot on not accepting crap excuses for delays)

All in all I would recommend an LA from my own experience.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/adoptions/2710123-La-vs-va