Stage 1 - How Active?

[teekay88]

Hi all!

I am really happy that in 2 months time we'll be making our formal application after waiting a while for life to settle down and to give us time to make some changes in preparation for a child. We've spoken to the agency we intend to go with and they have the heads up we will be applying (we had gone through some initial pre stage 1 tele assessments with them anynow) and really it's just a case of when 1st June arrives we'll be sending in our interest!

I know a fair amount about stage 1 from reading up but do get a bit confused about whether training or the workbook is involved at this stage and what we can exactly expect. So I am aware there are references taken and that they will be doing some medical and financial checks but in terms of "work" for want of a better word, that we will be doing, what should we expect?

Similarly is there anything it would be beneficial for us to discuss/work on beforehand? We have done a fair amount of reading/watching podcasts etc but anything more specific?

I guess what I'm getting at is it just going to be an admin process with them doing things in the background or are we going to be actively involved at this stage (or is that more stage 2)?

Any advice much appreciated, thank you!

Sorry I should also add that we have made a start on childcare experience too

No idea as it's all changed since we went through approval.
But wanted to say good luck.
(adopter of 11 years)

Our SW did all our writing, we'd have weekly 3 hour meetings and he would write our responses. We didn't have to do anything ourselves, 'writing wise', but it seems we were lucky as a lot of people have homework!
I wouldn't stress too much about doing things at this stage, you will have plenty of time in this process to do all those things, there is a lot of waiting from one appointment to the next.

Welcome to the process! It won’t be long coming round. We have been recently approved and stage 1 consisted of A LOT of writing in the workbooks which we enjoyed but it was time consuming. I think we wrote too much but it’s to help your SW talk through you and your lives to date and try to understand who you are. Stage 1 was also the 4 days training. Last day of training seen us hit “Send” on the workbooks and the anxious wait to hear whether we were accepted for stage 2 began. Stage 2 was the in depth meetings based on your workbooks and she copied and pasted a lot into our PAR at the end (you prob know this already but it is the report that goes to the panel for your approval and subsequently all social workers for matching).

Sounds like you are making a great start before you even begin

Exciting times ahead.

Why not apply now - no need to wait two months? A bit like 'planning to get engaged' - if you want to do it, do it now. The whole thing tends to be slower than you would want anyway. You could have got S1 out of the way in those two months.

We went on two days training as well, so save your holidays up :)

Stage 1 is references and checks, medicals etc.

We got to our end of stage 1 meeting, and hand't been told we should have done the workbooks by then - so I recommend doing those.

We also arranged our childcare experience. I am doing Beavers and DW is helping in school.

Hoping to finish S1 today, the SW needs to meet our 11/yo today to discuss how she feels about it. DD is not thrilled, if I am honest, so I really don't know how it will go.

I have done plenty of the reading. Generally using Kindle downloads as it is simpler.

Conversely we met our (first) SW once at the start, and again at the end of S1 meeting - no contact in between

Thanks so much all that's really helpful. The only real reason we are waiting at all is that my partner is doing a masters course which finishes end of May with his last exam so it seemed sensible to wait just a few more weeks to get that out the way then all systems go! Really interesting to hear all your experiences and for the first time I've allowed myself to be excited rather than nervous haha. The only slight thing now is that I'm worried me having started a new job recently will be an issue or cause a bit of awkwardness with time off and having to let my employer know etc but sure we will get through that. 5he reason I moved to the job was because of the adoption moving work our of London to a local less stressful role to accommodate room for the processes and being a parent so hoping that will be seen as a positive and it is a fixed term role anyhow so I guess I can be reasonably open with them about future plans as obviously I shouldn't be there long term. Thanks again everybody. Any tips you can give me about getting the best from stage 1 process and completing workbooks much appreciated! Xxx

When you say waiting to submit your application, do you mean your initial enquiry form or have you done that already and you now have the official application forms?

Only... once you submit an enquiry either at an open evening, online or other mechanism, some LAs will say “thanks for your interest, now we need to meet you to see whether we think you will get to stage 1 and officially apply”. We hadn’t appreciated this so it delayed us for A few months waiting for them to acknowledge the form and set up a meeting and permit us to Progress to stage 1.

If you haven’t submitted your interest, I say go for it and get the ball rolling! 😊

Also I changed jobs about 6 months before applying for the same reasons as you and this was looked upon favourably.

As for completing the books. Be honest but not too honest - they don’t always need to know about that one time in the last 30 years you had a fleeting thought/issue/disagreement. They just want to know where your potential weak spots are and identify things you may need additional help or support in.

I agree with @LaLaLands - it takes a while for the LA to actually notice you 'on the radar' so to speak.

Make sure you have submitted your expression of interest, and see if you can clear the early weeks. Honestly, I don't think it will clash too much with your parters masters.

Our SW told us to continue to live your life whilst all this goes along - don't put other things off 'just in case', as that will lead to disappointment.