Spare room?

[user1487854472]

I am thinking way in future about adoption. I have one DD who is 14 months and I cannot have anymore children of my own. I am now a single parent and live in a small 2 bed house. I love this house, but realise that if I wished to adopt that I'd need a spare room. Can you actually start the adoption process with the aim of moving if I was successful? I would hate to move house, go through with the assessment and then be declined to adopt.

Hi,
I'm a foster carer not an adopter, but was in a similar position.We had two children of our own and planned to convert the loft so that we had a spare bedroom for fostering. As we knew the assessment and the planning/ building would both take months we asked if the assessment could start straight away ie before we actually had a spare room.

We were told in no uncertain terms that no this wasn't possible, and our assessment didn't start until the loft conversion was complete. To be fair I can understand the reasoning for this as I guess this was a way of testing that we were serious about fostering and really did have the intention (and the finances!) to create the room.

I can only imagine they would be even more strict about there being space for an adopted child but I may be wrong and I'm sure someone else will tell you their experiences soon. It could be worth ringing your local authority adoption team for their policy about this.

We started the assessment with the knowledge that we would be moving. The social worker was fine with it. We also moved again after our approval panel and 5 days before our matching panel!
I guess it depends on who you get assessing you.

No agency would start the process with us until we had an actual spare room, even though we also always planned to move

It was slightly ironic that our DC shared a room for many years, still leaving us with a spare room

OP I think it is unlikely you could start and also in a way I think a lot of moving is disruptive for your exisiting child and your potential support network.

If you really love your current home I'd be tempted to try and split the largest bedroom into two or convert the loft.

Do take advice on this from social services before spending a penny.

If for some reason you do not decide to adopt or do not get approved you would not have moved. (But may have added value to your home).

Just make sure the rest of your home is big enough for you and two growing children.

Good luck.

I mean moving just before adoption, not now.