Adoption

[cappy123]

Hi there, we've just moved to a larger home and are on the adoption journey. We were paused by the agency within the start of stage 2 whilst we moved. We're interested in adopting siblings and are looking at purchasing a new, larger car and are reviewing our options. We have a 17 yo and so would ideally need a 5-7 seater. A colleague's friend has just adopted 4 siblings and was issued with a car by the agency. Is this something anybody has experience of? We don't want to ask for help we're not entitled to, but don't want to not ask for help if it's available, if that makes sense. Thanks all.

Any kind of adoption support, financial or otherwise, would be negotiated when you were matched with a particular child or children.

"Any kind of adoption support, financial or otherwise, would be negotiated when you were matched with a particular child or children."

Yep; and it is likely to be some months off, at least. Bluntly, unless you are poor you are unlikely to get anything. The exception might be where the LA really wants a match to go ahead and some cash will move things along (e.g. hard to place kids, who've been waiting a while and are costing a fortune in FC fees).

You do right to ask, getting SWs to tell you about what financial support is available can be hard. What is going varies wildly by LA, but stuff like moving in grants have dropped of a lot in the last few years. I've never heard of anyone getting a car before.

I've never heard of anyone adopting four sibling before

I think a car would be the least the placing LA could do!

I have a friend who adopted her 2 fc and as she already had a large family ss bought her a mini bus. Going back a few yrs though .

True that settling-in grants have all but evaporated. We have been in the system 3.5 years and our Stage 2 SW told us about the LA's grant back then, think it was £500. It doesn't exist anymore.

Our matching paperwork mentions a settling in grant of £400 and I've assumed it's a mistake!

It might be right rain, I think we got £250 for each of ours (4 years ago).

conserve I know of someone who adopted quads!

we have 4 siblings (not placed all at once though, 2 then 1 then 1).
We didn't even get a settling in grant.

We got a settling in grant- £250, recently. Had to provide receipts.

I know a family who adopted a sibling group of 5. It was very hard and I don't know if it worked out in the longer term. Often the youngest one or two children are very damaged and need a huge amount of in put.

Large sibling groups are very hard to place and hard to adopt . Realistically you need at least one parent at home full time for years and another who has quite short working hours / works from home or equivalent e.g. Young fit grandparent who lives very near and is commmitted to hours of help each week.

It's hard enough to meet the needs of one or two traumatised children , let alone four or more.

It's not the same as having a large family by another means, or adopted kids who come one or two at a time ( and I say that as someone who has had 6kids ) .