Adoption and finances

[Heff4lump]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of advice and maybe a few words of wisdom. We are in Scotland and just had our initial home visit. I'm concerned about some debt we have. I keep reading people say you have to prove you are financially stable but how do you prove this?what financial paperwork does the SW need to see, if any? So I suppose I'm asking how this stage in the process is assessed? Many thanks 😀

You will need to do a full financial assessment to be able to show you can manage finances when child arrives. Also factor in the fact that you might not be able to work for a longer period than expected of take time off in the future. Adopted children need a lot of support.
Social workers will ask you about every aspect of your lives and will want to speak to friends and family too

We had to fill out s form of our income and outgoings. We also provided 3 months of bank statement plus answered questions on what We would do if certain circumstances arrived.

Our financial assessment was very straightforward- we provided copy pay slips to evidence our income, mortgage statement and car and house insurances. We were asked about our disposable income and how we might plan to take time off for DC. We didn't need to provide proof of any debts etc. We're in Scotland and that part of the assessment was pretty light touch tbh.

Thanks for your help 😁 im just trying to get everything I can organised so if the SW asks to see anything I will have it at hand, as everything is paperless nowadays and it can be time consuming requesting statements etc. We don't have much debt and the SW didn't seem bothered by it. Thanks again.

Jellycats can I ask where you are in the adoption process? 😁

Our two DC were placed with us in August and the adoption was finalised in December so we're about as far through as it's possible to get

Do feel free to ask if you've got questions etc, the Scottish system is quite different in some ways to the U.K.

That's fantastic news you must be delighted. What a great Christmas present having the adoption finalized in December. What does DC mean? I'm clueless when it comes to all the abbreviations 😀 how long has the process taken for you from the first SW visit to having a child placed? When you first met your little one how long was it before he/she was placed in your care full time? It's great to speak to someone in Scotland who has been through the process, thank you so much. when I Google anything it's all different info but as you said the process is handled different here. I know I will get a chance to ask these questions on the 4 day training course (can't remember what it's called lol) but that's not until march 🤣 I am overweight, do you know if that will effect the adoption process? X

DC means dear children. We have a boy and a girl.

I was overweight and needed to loose weight during the process - it was ok really, more than anything our LA wanted us to show a committment to healthy eating and activity and we could do that.

Our process wasn't typical in that we had a lot of health issues and the like which really delayed our process - it took us 4 years to be approved (don't panic, that's very far from the norm). It is slower than the rest of the uk - most folk I know were around 2 years from start to placement. After all that time it took about 6 months to have our children linked and matched and we met them one week and they moved in permanently the next.

The process is very start stop, nothing happens for ages and then you're painting bedrooms and going on leave... it's lovely though, the two little buttons sleeping upstairs are well worth it.