Local authority or agency?

[Malzzy]

Hello! My husband and I are just in the process of seriously considering applying to adopt. We've had a lot of discussions together and done a lot of research the last few weeks. We're in Wales, and sent away for an information pack from the local authority which covers the whole of North Wales. We've received a leaflet and some forms to fill in if we want to apply. Am I right in thinking that you can only go through one application at a time with one authority/agency? Is the local authority a good one to go through? Or would we be better off applying to an agency? They only seem to acknowledge 2 agencies in the whole of wales (barnardos and another that I can't remember the name of) but on searching there are some over the border in England that come up as 'covering' our area.
We're apprehensive of going through the long process with the local authority, if agencies are better?
Sorry for what is probably a silly question! Very new to this 🙈

We adopted through the agency that covers north Wales and the trainer is great, really knowledgeable. She is constantly putting on a wide range of courses and works closely both with adoption U.K. and its Welsh sister agency adoption Cymru. It was truly a lucky happenstance as we just went with our local agency which happened to be welsh and as we intend to raise our LO to be Welsh it meant that we were matched with a Welsh child so in terms of maintaining their identity, it was perfect for us.

You don't have to mention your nationality but the ability to raise a child in the welsh culture will come up, especially if the child you're matched with is from a predominantly Welsh speaking area/background and it's not your first/second language. It's not a barrier but is something to be aware of.

Likewise, depending on the age of the child you are matched with, you might be asked about the implications of living in a predominantly Welsh speaking area with access to welsh medium schools only for a child who grew up over the border in England and doesn't speak Welsh.

You can only apply for one at a time and you need to consider the fact that authorities try to place in house first as it costs them money to put a child on the register so they can be considered for potential matches within other areas of the country and across to England costs still more. So again this is something you need to consider depending on what needs you think you can meet. That being said, there is a shortage of adopters in North Wales at the moment.

You can only use one agency, that is correct.
Best thing to do (imho) is to call the la and the agencies that cover your area. Just to get a feel for them. We called several and our la and the reactions varied. Most including our la came across as if we were bothering them during their lunch break. They couldn't get off the phone quickly enough telling us we could find all the answers on their website. Or they would send us an email which was literally a PDF version of their website. Very off putting. Two agencies stood out as they were very friendly and helpful on the phone, taking their time and even calling us back. So it differs from area to area I think.
If you go through your local authority they will try and place the children in their care with their own adoptive parents. So you have first dibs so to speak. Agencies don't have any children in their care and work with local authorities to place children for which they receive a fee.
What's better? There's no answer to that. We found our lo through an agency and a colleague of mine found his los through his la.
Good luck and never be afraid to ask questions!

Thank you both so much for your replies!
So is that the North Wales Adoption Service? We're from a very Welsh speaking area, I'm Welsh as is my family, but my husband and his family are English so we speak mainly English at home, but I do often speak Welsh to my daughter and all the education here is through the medium of Welsh, so that's a good point about applying over the border etc.
We've had a good feeling from the correspondence with these so far but I think I'll need to phone them after the weekend- I have so many questions and niggling worries at the back of my head! I keep thinking that something about our house or lives will come up that mean we wouldn't be suitable adopters for whatever reason 😬

Yes we did adopt through the North Wales Adoption Service. If you go on either their Facebook page or the national adoption service's page you'll find lots of information about common adoption questions. In fact next week is adoption week so there's lots of stuff related to that, including webinars that the national adoption service are running during the week. It's definitely worth looking at.

oh great, I'll have a good look 😁 thankyou!