What Happens Next?

[SFCA]

After a 2.5 year adoption journey our amazing son’s adoption order has been granted 🥳 🎉

It is probably a really stupid question but what so we do now? I was so happy that I didn’t ask the SW anything 😂 So the main things it would be great to know please...

• when and how can we apply for his certificate?
• when can we change his name at school etc and how do we go about this?
• Has anybody had issues with NHS number being changed? Our son is under 6 different hospitals due to complex needs and we are a bit concerned about possible disruption to his medical care.

Thank you all

Congratulations!
Your journey length sounds pretty much the same as mine was. Such a relief when it's all finally official

• NHS number change happens automatically. I did have a bit of fuss when suddenly the Heath visitor got in touch to find out why I had suddenly removed my daughter from the local gp and not enrolled anywhere else. Was about 2 weeks of limbo then she suddenly appeared again on their system with the new number. The health visitor called me back to give it to me so I would have it. I didn't hear from the gp at all.
• It takes a few weeks to hear from the GRO by letter they have now registered the adoption and they send you all the info and code you need to apply for the adoption certificate online
• Afraid school is not something I've had to deal with as everything else id enrolled in Id just been using my surname so not had to change anything officially (other than child benefit and tax free childcare people)

Congratulations!
I took the copy of the adoption order into school and they sorted everything 're surname/parental responsibility. I did notice on their annual info to check last year that they hadn't read the name info properly and hadn't updated her middle name, but apart from that all was smooth.

Change of NHS number happens automatically, but keep an eye on it. My DD also has complex health needs and I have lost count of the number of health teams that have been involved. Even now (5 years post final order) we get the occasional letter with the old number on and I end up having to ring and explain.

I'm curious why the NHS name needed to be changed? That seems necessary? Surely the details, eg surname can be changed without changing the number.

NHS number happens automatically, keep an eye on that as I had a few issues getting our GP to not treat my son as a new patient. We sometimes still get a letter from specialists with his old NHS number.

Within 3/4 weeks you will have your code and be able to apply for the adoption cerificate. Like a birth certifcate there is a long and short one. The short one doesn’t mention adoption and is titled certificate of birth. Why I’m not sure, maybe left over from adoptions being secret?

You can just take the adoption certificate to school to change a name.

@hettie555 it's entirely possible that birth family will have the old NHS number and could either receive or access information they should no longer legally have access to.

Just a warning. Our wee ones adoption order was granted in March. The paperwork has not been filed yet and it's on a floor of an office with the staff still working from home. Covid apparently has stopped said office from processing paperwork! Seven months and I'm still emailing them monthly for updates. And still no new birth certificate. Managed to get child benefit tho by explaining the situation.

The NHS number change was tricky. At the time my DS's AO was granted he had a bad ear infection. I took him to the GP who gave us a week's prescription and asked us to come back the following week. When we returned for our appointment a week later it had been cancelled as DS was no longer registered with the practice (due to number change). It took quite a few weeks to get that resolved. He also has multiple health probs so I called all the hospitals involved.

Thank you all for taking the time to respond 😊

Patience needed 😂 It just took so long for him to be legally our son that we can’t wait for him to have our name and to stop being addressed as his foster carers!

Thank you too for all the information regarding NHS number change, we will make sure everyone knows.