Which agencies or LA have the fastest initial enquiry to AC coming home?

[Amazonmulu]

Hello :) We are just starting on our adoption journey and wanted to get a feel of what the time lines are like at the moment. I spoke to a lovely lady at Bernardo’s who said it was around 6m yet looking at the different threads in adoption it sounds like 2-3y is more realistic. What’s been your experience? Should add that we are in Yorkshire.

Hello. We're in Yorkshire too and currently in stage 2 with a VA, so I can't help you with the matching timeline but 6 months is standard for approval.

Stage 1 is usually 2 months for all of your statutory checks to come back (medical/DBS) then 4 months for Stage 2, which is with your own social worker. When your training days happen depends on the agency. There can be delays if they need to look at medical notes or social workers are away etc. I think it is safe to expect brief delays, whichever agency you are with as sometimes these are outside of their control.

The main wait is usually post-approval when they are trying to match you with a child/children. How long it takes will depend on what you are looking for - ages, number of children, disabilities, backgrounds etc. For that reason you need to be careful when trying to compare timelines from other people's experiences as you don't know the adopter's history nor what they have said they are looking for or willing to discuss. Best of luck with your journey :)

We're also Yorkshire. Submitted expression of interest end December 2020, approved July 2021, matched in August. Matching panel in November and our children moved just before Christmas (not planned that way, odd circumstances forced our hand)

It depends on age of child and if you only want 1.

We knew from the start we wanted 2 children and we weren't looking for a baby, which is why I think we got a match so quick. Ours are between 2 and 5

And also we used One adoption North and Humber, 5 local councils joined together in a regional adoption agency (RAA)

The 6 nonths is likely to be at the point of approval being done and the 2-3 is more all of that plus being matched and having a child home. All depending what child youre looking to take on. A lot of people keep telling me they were starting matches before panel! I don't think I have fully thought about getting a child this year! 😂

@GoodTennis I know what you mean! We are so early in our journey, and the thought of have it done and complete in 2022 would blow my mind (and be amazing). I’m just trying not to get too excited

@claireb7rg that’s really useful to know. We’ve only approached Bernardo’s so far and I don’t know what the rules and pros and cons between the different agencies and LA are. We were going to try first with our LA but to even join a zoom kick off session we’d have to wait a couple of month

@Kindee I think you’ve hit the nail on the head - we are very open to what we want but I think we need to be more specific in order to help the matching.

[quote Amazonmulu]@GoodTennis I know what you mean! We are so early in our journey, and the thought of have it done and complete in 2022 would blow my mind (and be amazing). I’m just trying not to get too excited[/quote]
Yea same here. I think this is partly why I won't let myself consider it happening this year. We are in the last bits of stage 1. Im just trying to learn as much as I can and absorb as much information from people who have done it and especially adults who were adopted. My greatest fear is not doing the right thing by this child I have in my head.

[quote Amazonmulu]@claireb7rg that’s really useful to know. We’ve only approached Bernardo’s so far and I don’t know what the rules and pros and cons between the different agencies and LA are. We were going to try first with our LA but to even join a zoom kick off session we’d have to wait a couple of month [/quote]
Voluntary agencies don't have children. LA / RAA have the children so you could be waiting longer through a voluntary agency.

I’ve heard people on other threads mention Linkmaker and other related terms but I’ve not been able to find what those are.

Also I’m trying to research and understand what’s best in terms of our DD age 5 - would younger child / children or baby or sibling pair be easiest for her to get used to.

We tried for a long time after her to have more kids. I always saw us with 2 or 3 but it was just not meant to be. It took a while to come to terms with and now that that “trying” journey is done we feel ready to work on adoption. Our DD often asks for siblings and sees her friends having sibling babies - but she has been an only child for 5+ years so I don’t know what it will be like for her :(

The problem at the moment is there are more adopters than children due to the covid court backlog and also there are a lack of social workers (due to covid and also some leaving the profession) so I think you could be waiting wherever you end up.

We were told originally we'd have to wait a month ish to start the process but in the end our social worker contacted us within 2 weeks of contacting the agency. Being told there is a wait and the wait actually happening are 2 different things.

Sorry for the daft question but what is an RAA?

@Amazonmulu

I’ve heard people on other threads mention Linkmaker and other related terms but I’ve not been able to find what those are.

Also I’m trying to research and understand what’s best in terms of our DD age 5 - would younger child / children or baby or sibling pair be easiest for her to get used to.

We tried for a long time after her to have more kids. I always saw us with 2 or 3 but it was just not meant to be. It took a while to come to terms with and now that that “trying” journey is done we feel ready to work on adoption. Our DD often asks for siblings and sees her friends having sibling babies - but she has been an only child for 5+ years so I don’t know what it will be like for her :(

Linkmaker is a website that some social workers uses to place children. You upload a profile and then you can view available children. The child's social worker can contact you / your sw and you / your sw can contact the child's sw.

We found it rubbish as not all available children are on there, some children on there are not available and the sw sometimes don't respond.

@Amazonmulu

Sorry for the daft question but what is an RAA?

Regional adoption agency (as detailed above)

There are some really good accounts to follow on YouTube & Instagram regarding adoption that you might find useful. This was a post shared recently regarding adopting with birth children & has a couple of book recommendations www.instagram.com/adoption.resources.uk/p/CYKB1sxsLdI/?utm_medium=copy_link

@claireb7rg thank you!

@Kindee thank you - will give that a look right now 👍🏻

As others have said the 6 month time scale is to be approved to adopt the matching side of things has no time frame. I've a friend who waited nearly 3 years to be matched but we had a match within days of approval 5 years ago. It all depends on what sort of child you are looking for age gender ethnicity all play a part. We are now going through the process for a 2nd time. Social workers usually ask that there is a 2 year minimum age gap between a birth child and adopted so if you have a 5 year old you would be looking at she 3 and below