How long did you wait after SW visit?

[DashOfMagic]

Hello wise kind ones,

Just that really. We have a children’s SW visit soon to discuss a potential match. Can we expect to hear quite quickly afterwards whether or not they would like to proceed with us? What were the next steps in your experience?

We know they have already had a big meeting / panel and “approved the link” and the next step was the visit (assume they did it that way round as we are a bit of a distance for them to travel).

Also any nuggets on what they might ask / discuss will be gratefully received.

Thanks

We had SW and Foster Carer visit first thing in the morning. They travelled together as it was quite far. They got in the car to leave, decided straight away that they both thought we were perfect before they even drove off so they came straight back in to tell us!

Thank you, that’s lovely! Will keep my fingers crossed for THAT kind of speedy decision!

I know you won't be wanting to get your hopes up but if they have already had a matching meeting, there's no reason for them to say no unless you give them a reason! They will have seen your PAR, spoken in depth to your SW....so unless they notice you have a secret dungeon or something, I really think you're good to go it also means that they aren't considering any other families (which was also the case with us), so they have no reason not to give you a pretty immediate decision unless the meeting throws up something they weren't aware of.

Agree with previous comments, they're just coming to make sure they've made the right decision. Ours told us at that meeting that they think we're a great match & let us know possible dates / timescales for next steps. It was all pretty solid but they made sure to say "Obviously it's panels' final decision".

Some advice I was given was to have a list of questions about the kids ready including questions about what you need to get for them / what they come with if that makes sense. Also to have looked into what playgroups/activities etc are in your local area that they may like - I know this is part of the process but they'll be pleased you've looked into it for this specific child.

At that stage in the process I was excited underneath but I found it hard to express those feelings for some reason, I made a point of rehearsing answers to the questions 'why this match/these children' & 'How do you feel about it' which was super helpful as both came up in that meeting. We were also asked to show them the kids bedrooms & tell them about our plans for decorating them.

How exciting for you! On the cusp of the next chapter - good luck with it all!

Hi both,

Thank you so much for your replies, they are so positive and make me feel very (tentatively) hopeful / excited!! You are exactly right, we have been trying to keep our feelings in check.

We have deep cleaned. We’ve done a list of questions based on CPRs, and looked up local activities we think they’d like. We have locked the secret dungeon.

Fingers crossed!!!

Thank you again x

I'm excited for you. It's always so obvious to everyone on the outside that it is going to be a yes, but you never want to believe it for yourself!

What really worked for us is that the SW (and then matching panel) could see that we had already "claimed" DS from that initial meeting- we knew he was the one, we let them know that we knew it. We kept saying "we don't want to get ahead of ourselves but...". We loved him already and they loved that they could see that.

So you might be tempted to be a bit reserved, but don't try to hard. They want to see you want this child!!