Choosing the right adoption agency

[Hitchyhero]

Me and my civil partner are at the very start of this journey. We've been together for 6 years and now have our own home, so feel we are in the right place to now adopt.

I have trawled through the adoption threads and learnt a lot. We are currently looking into which adoption agency to go for. I understand there are volunteer agencies and Local Authority agencies. From what I have read volunteer agencies seem to have the 'harder to place' children, whereas LA have a variety but only within the LA itself.

I've contacted local authority (Derby) and been invited to an adoption event at the end of the month. I can't seem to find many reviews per se, but someone on another thread posted a 'scorecard' listed on the UK government website.

It seems that Leicester have a good score card compared to my own LA. And they arnt that far away. I've took a glance at the website and it mentions they are currently 'recruiting' adopters outside Leicester and welcome the applicants, which sounds all good. I'm going to contact them tomorrow to see if I can attend their event, and ask about their support /after-adoption support.

Has anyone adopted through a LA they weren't in. What made you choose them? Did you have to travel their often? Anyone adopted with Leicester or Derby council? Just generally interested in people's experiences.

From what I have read volunteer agencies seem to have the 'harder to place' children, whereas LA have a variety but only within the LA itself.

Yes and no. LAs do often have much better access to 'easy to place' babies, but some caveats to that:

1. VAs can look nationally, LAs often don't. So if the supply of children meeting your criteria, in your area, is limited a VA can be a better choice.
2. Many VAs are now part of groupings with LAs, so will have greater direct access.
3. Easy to place is far no guarantee of anything. Young, apparently healthy babies have the best outcomes on average but also a lot of uncertainty.

Personally I would look for the best agency in your area. One which will support you long term and work hard for you in matching. If an LA is good then certainly access to younger placements may be a big consideration.

Has anyone adopted through a LA they weren't in.

This is very common; potentially an advantage because you won't be near BPs. We did because we were with a VA and they were the LA looking to place our daughter. You will need to travel to them for training, meetings and placement- so don't go with one too far away. A long drive in intros can be hard work.

firstly voluntary agencies do not 'have' any children. All children are the responsibility of their local authority.

If you are approved by a VA, they will look nationally for a match for you, LAs will only do that if there is no in house match available.

Hard to place means very little in my view. A child could be hard to place because of age, ethnicity, security issues. My son ticked every hard to place box you can think of. Compared to some of the easy to place babies he is a dream to parent. Many of those easy to place babies have the same issues as the older so called hard to place child.
My advice is to shop around a bit. Talk to a few agencies, get a feel for whether you like them, trust them and think you can work with

Good luck

Agree eith others.

Personally, i'd lool at thr posy adoption support tp see what they offee. Travelling a long way for support or training is not great.

Spellings!!

I can't really add anything here other than to agree with other posters comments and just to say that my experience is it has been considered the norm if not preferable at all LAs I've spoken with to apply out of borough/county due to the birth parents factor which another poster has already raised. In fact the LA I'm with is actively not taking applications in borough as they have a no of higher risk families x good luck with your choice x