Initial visit nerves!

[PolkaDot12345]

We have booked in for for initial visit on the 1st feb! Very nervous but excited for the process ahead! Does anyone have any tips for the initial visit? Any questions we should expect or anything I need to prepare in advance? Also is there anyone else at this stage? Would love to hear from others

PolkaDot12345 good luck. Is this an open evening/open day or a meeting with a social worker?

If it is an open day, they will be telling you loads of stuff.

I would take a note pad and pen and jot down anything of use, if you feel comfortable doing that.

If it is a meeting just you and your other half and the social worker, then relax, breathe, they will want to know what got you to this point. Do you have kids already, have you had trouble conceiving naturally, have you had fertility treatment? I don't mean tell me, I mean this is what they will ask.

They will ask if you have physical room in your home for a baby or child or children, and if it is a visit in your home they may wish to look round.

They may ask about money and finances. I was never asked about sex life etc!

They may well ask you about number & age of children you are thinking about, and how open you might be to disabilities.
This will help them prioritise you for assessment based on the type of children they have coming through the system.
Be as 'open' as you can, but realistic.

Hi it’s our first meeting with the social worker so not sure what to expect! Thank you for your reply!

Hello, we had ours two weeks ago. It lasted 2.5 hours. She had a form to fill in so said it might feel a bit odd but there are certain questions she had to ask. Initial question was 'what has brought you to adoption?'. Then asked about the types of children we thought we could parent. Then asked for a potted history of each of us. That's worth planning a little. So we mentioned where we were born, what our childhood's were like, siblings, schooling, and notable events ( such as parental divorce, changing school etc) moved on to our lives as young adults (again mentioned anything 'big' like education, moves, bereavements) then moved on to how we met and our life so far. I have a more complex story so mine took about 30 mins whereas DP took about 20. I didn't sugar coat any of the rough bits but also highlighted strengths. Occasionally she would chip in with a question. Often about my relationship to others so like 'And do you get on with your sisters?'She said she was pleased with how open we were as it shows that we wouldn't try to hide stuff through the process.

The only other very specific questions I remember were -do you smoke and do you believe in smacking children?

We ran out of time as we had some more questions for her but all round it was good, informative. We won't be progressing for at least 6 months (she agreed that's what we would need) but it felt great to have done that bit.

Oh they also asked our plan for placement. In other words, who would stay home and so we talked her through our 4 options and just said we would pick whichever one best suited the child/children we were matched with.

We had ours just before Christmas, like previous poster it was like 20 questions...

All about us, our childhood, education, our immediate families, our house, pets, jobs etc

She asked us what we were thinking in terms of adoption single child / siblings, ages etc

We then had to take the laptop on a tour of the house