Coram

[Cardiganandcuppa]

Hi there,

Looking for anyone who has adopted through
Coram and would be willing to share their experience please?

We feel like we are being messed around a bit by our LA. First contact with them was March and they can’t offer us a stage ONE place till November.

We don’t have loads of options where we live, but I think Coram might be an alternative option open to us and just wanted to know other adopters’ experience.

Thanks in advance :)

Yes I have we were going to go with them they sounded very professional and I have only heard good things

We went with action for children in the end but like you the LA was mucking is about

And we blinking fostered for them

You have to understand this with La

The sw and the la get their funding and wages no matter how long it takes to approve you so their motivation is low because weather it takes a month or 7 they still get paid

However VA like Coram only get their money once a child is placed

And sw get paid once the assessment is finished so not only is their motervation to place children but to pay their bills
Va are also a lot better and quicker at telling people if they are adoption ready

Oh that’s interesting. I hadn’t thought that through re the money.

I think they are keeping us all in a holding pen pre stage one because the official clock hasn’t started ticking yet. That way they can still hit their targets of how long their assessments take.... without the reality.

Sigh.

We went with Coram (central london branch) for first adoption. They were brilliant - and I didn’t feel pressured to take a child (unlike second time when we went with VA). I felt they were happy for us to take our time.

They also did the training sessions in the evenings - so we didn’t have to take a day off work.

Great experience and I still look back on our SW fondly (we had one from start to finish whereas with LA we had 3 different ones).

Oh that’s really good to hear, thank you.

Did you find they only had the hardest to place children?

I know all children come with loss and trauma and additional needs to some extent. We have birth children already so need to balance them into the mix too.

We used Coram (Cambridge) and they were brilliant. I approached them shortly after our beautiful boy died, he was adopted and due to our advancing years we felt we could not afford to wait.
They were so understanding and we had our son placed 6 months after their 1st visit. We were never pressured to take a child and we found our LO ourselves.
Must add we did want a child with complex needs.
Also they fought and won to get a healthy adoption allowance for him.

Coram sent us to try our LA, as they felt we would get an easier to place child that way.
We didn't like our LA so went with another 35 miles away, we knew a couple who'd adopted with them and they wanted out of area adopters which we certainly were!
November isn't actually that long to wait for a prep course, especially if the timing means you can get started shortly after the course.
There's lots of waiting in adoption
I'd go with the vibe of the agency/authority ather than the start date.
We really got on well with all of the SWs with both of our adoptions and that really helped through 2 quite tricky adoptions.
I have no doubt Coram have amazing staff and training and it's possible we might have met our children with them as they were both on the cusp of going on the national register but I'm glad we went with the LA that we did.