Adoption in Hertfordshire

[user1470147116]

We are moving to St Albans soon and are looking to adopt (we are straight caucasian couple).

Has anyone adopted or in process in adopting from Hertfordshire LA?

What is your experience of LA?

How long does it take to go through process?

What is the main age group and ethnicity of available children?

Will pm you

We live in St Albans are currently in stage 1 of adopting.

We were told it takes a minimum of 2 months for stage 1, but probably longer to get all the references, medicals etc. In our case its been dragged out as they cancelled the June start dates and we have been on holiday all of August, so missed those dates. I made the first phone call at the start of April. Then we had to go to an evening session and then a one day session before starting stage 1. Because of the June dates being cancelled it was July before we started stage 1. It will be mid October by the time we finish stage 1.

They say that stage 2 will only take 4 months and I think they are assessed on this and its led by the social worker, so hopefully that is the case. However, you can take up to a 6 month break between stage 1 and 2. We may have to delay a few months due to my husband starting a new job. So I am expecting the whole thing to end up taking at least a year from first phone call to matching. However, I think it does depend a lot on individual circumstances and luck.

We were told most children adopted are about 1-3 years. I don't know about ethnicity, but they encourage you to adopt children of the same ethnicity generally.

Happy to answer any other questions you may have.