Which agency to choose?

[Sk0]

Hello!

My partner and I are finally ready to start the adoption process after years of getting our house in order (literally!).

We live in Greenwich, SE London, and wondered 2 things:
Local authority or agency?
Which agency?

We have spoken to all the Ofsted rated Outstanding agencies and they all sound much the same. Are there any to avoid, or any more suited for whatever reason?

I can't seem to find any pros/cons anywhere and want to make sure we have the right support for this huge journey.

I follow adoption resources U.K. on Instagram and they recently posted the following:

www.instagram.com/p/CdGOEQssJNt/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

They post lots of stuff that's really worth looking at in terms of prep work too

I'm based on a completely different part of the U.K. so can't comment on London agencies, the link is about the differences between voluntary and LA agencies.

It depends what you are looking for. If you want a healthy white baby, you might be better off with a RAA. If you are open to older children, sibling groups, children with disabilities, children from BAME backgrounds, a VA might be a good fit.

Some VAs have very good post-adoption support and you get their support on top of the support you are legally entitled to from the placing LA. That is a big plus. I would ask every agency questions about that. If they tell you, you get the legal requirement, look further.

Check out Coram and Family Futures, in case you have not done so yet.

Thank you so much, this has been helpful. We are open to sibling groups and have absolutely no preference on race etc as long as we are deemed a good fit.

Being new parents, I think the post-adoption support is the most important thing of all, and it looks like Coram are potentially the best for this(?)

When I was researching I was told that the local authorities have responsibility for placing children. They look at their ‘in house’ adopters, then regionally, then nationally. Then they look at agencies because of the cost of going out of their local adopters is so high. But they’re also more specific about who they’ll consider, so it depends on what you’re looking for and how ‘appealing’ you are to them?

I chose a VA, mainly because they felt like the right fit but also because of the post-addition support they offered. Several years down the line, I made one call for some advice and they have been outstanding, scaling up their support as the situation developed. They've provided specialist support, training for me and my childcare provider, and emotional support including knowing my child and I have a team of experts in our corner.

We just passed our approval panel (yesterday!) with Adopt London South (who would also be your LA) and we have had a good experience. The news we are hearing from others like us is that due to the current adopter surplus, it is easier to get placed if you go with an LA as they have direct access to the children ‘on their books’. That is only my experience though!

@WittyUsername123
Congratulations!! How exciting! I know it depends on personal circumstances, but have you heard how long it's taking to get placed with ASL compared to a VA? We haven't had the opportunity to speak with anyone going through the process yet.

@FoolShapeHeart
This is really comforting to know! We have whittled it down to either our LA (Adopt South London) or Coram. It really depends on the after care - as this is when we will need the most help! So I'd be willing to wait longer to be placed if it means better support in the long run.

It's such a big decision!

@Sk0 I think that depends a bit on how wide your matching criteria are. I know ALS are low on siblings right now and have greater than average numbers of BAME children, but all this could change by the time it takes for you to be approved to be honest!

I had a very positive experience with Newham which has now been absorbed into Adopt London East. A lot of the same team remain and we found in comparison to others going through the process they were much more progressive reasonable and flexible in their approach. They also allowed us to search linkmaker (national profile site) immediately after panel whereas other agencies can make you wait 3 months to try and match you 'in houee' first . Just my humble opinion though!

RAA/LA would be my inside choice

We’ve just gone through the process and this is our honest opinion…

we went through an agency and our social worker was amazing but I think the process / experience is very much based on your social worker you can have a good or bad social worker from agency or local authority.

in terms of children, it did that the children we were “looking at” were more complex “harder” to place children that local authorities were unable to place and had therefore reached out to national agencies to find placements.

Equally, we found our son through an agency (adoption matters) and he is the perfect fit for our family. We wouldn’t have found him through our local authority as he was from outside of our area.

I think if you go through an agency you just need to prepared to wait a little longer for a potential match.

Coram offers outstanding post-adoption support. They have highly experienced and helfpul sw whom you can call every morning of the week. For instance, Coram offers adoptive parenting classes for their families. The sw who run these classes are the same who are on duty for Coram's post adoption support helpline, which means these sw know Coram's adoptive families very well and have longstanding relationships with them. Coram offer a lot of extra support and that is support you will get on top of what you are legally entitled from ALS (if ALS is your local RAA).

ALS will not assign you a post-adoption support worker unless you have a very high level of need. Then you will get one only until you are less in need. Some of their sw are also excellent though.

LAs tend to place "easier to place" children (which does not equal easier to parent). Children can be hard to place because they are a sibling group, a certain ethnicity, over 4 years old, need to be placed away from where they are now, have potential health risks or disabilities.