Early Permanence / Foster to Adopt

[LimitedEdition83]

Hello all, what advice can you give about adopting through EP/F2A?

I am exploring adoption (attending Information Events, reading up) but am not yet registered with an agency. As a single prospective adopter I'm considering whether Early Permanence might be an option for me. But I'd like to know:

• what percentage of EPs result in reunification with birth family?
• how long is the period between initial placement and matching/the child being approved for adoption (so, how long is a child typically with you before the formal adoption process can begin, i.e certainty that they will not be returning to birth family)?
• How frequent, and for how long each time, are contact visits with birth family, e.g. per week?

Thanks, everyone!

Hiya can’t give a percentage on how many result in reunification. But I think it’s less helpful to think about how many do/ don’t result in that, but more about how you would cope if you are in the smaller percentage group of reunification cases, as you have no control on which group ur going to be in. I know many that have ended in adoption and I know a
good number of cases that ended in reunification.

In terms of how long, it’s a bit of a case of how long is a piece of string. It could be wrapped up, placement order in place in 6 months, or you could be looking at a year and a half or more of contact.

we facilitated contacted twice a week for 1 and a half hours, but other children contact schedules can vary greatly xx

Thanks, @Pollylong - that's good to know. I'll be thinking long and hard about this possibility during the first stages. It seems that experiences with EP can vary greatly - even if there are target timelines in place.

I really does vary greatly, I think thats why it’s good to consider worse case scenario, for example can you afford to not go back to work after the year if it does go on longer. Have you got a support network in place to help you if reunification takes place. Have you got the stomach for the risk and uncertainty and lack of control.

If the above doesn’t scare you really think about going for ep, it’s hard, but it’s worth it, for the child and you x

It seems that experiences with EP can vary greatly - even if there are target timelines in place.

There may be target timelines but people don’t work that way. The aim is always going to be reunification until social work can evidence it’s not possible. In reality that may mean birth parents doing ok for a while (making reunification a possibility) and then relapsing - repeatedly - before there’s enough to say they just can’t sustain the needed change. The process can go a long time before the children are freed for adoption so you’d need to prepare for that in terms of work, childcare and contact.

Thank you @Jellycatspyjamas - yes, that makes sense. I'll have to give that serious consideration, as extending my leave longer than 12 months, even unpaid, may not be realistic. I'll have to look at the policies etc!

I think others have give good advice. It’s so varied, our lo was placed as an ffa placement but there was already extensive evidence and a lot of work had happened pre birth and up until placement with us from birth mother at 4 months. So we were told very clear reasons why neither birth parents or their families would be considered. We kept an open mind and knew that Altho highly unlikely it could have changed. We were lucky as changed to adoptive placement 3 months after placement for others it goes on much longer. So worth considering individual stories& asking lots of q to ascertain how thorough the professionals have been. We were lucky with our social worker who was really experienced & guided us really well!

That sounds like a blessedly short period of uncertainty for you and all involved! I'm delighted the process worked out, and congratulations on your LO. It does seem like the hardest part really is the waiting for the court decisions to be made - and that does sound potentially very unsettling, the longer it takes. Thanks for sharing!

Great answers from folks above. . r e. Frequency of contact for us it was 3 times a week - 2 with Mum, 1 with Dad. 90 mins a time. Contact was for 10 months and the adoption went through pretty much a year to the day little one was placed with us.

I'm currently adopting but will not be going down the ep route as I couldn't handle the upset if they were to return to birth family.

My friend has gone down this route and her little girl is nearly 3 and the contact is 4 x a week. 3 with birth mum and once with grandparents. The little girl doesn't call her mum and they can't go on any holidays.

I know another family where the adoption order came after about 13 months. It was a relief to them as bm was always missing contact sessions but they still had to take the baby, which is fair enough.

I'd second everything said already. Think of it from the point of view that you will be that percentage that remain foster carers and support reunification. After 9 months of care that was where I found myself. I thought I was prepared but it was devestating. At @Jellycatspyjamas explains that first reunification can also be because there simply isn't enough evidence to move forward with an adoption. Ultimately reunification didn't work but it took 3.5 years for the adoption to go through with contact throughout. LO was put in some utterly dreadful situations because there wasn't enough evidence to stop it from happening and I had to be the person who dropped them off, into it and collected them afterwards. Time line wise this may be a unique story but it does happen. If you are going ahead with it you need nerves of steel. It is the best thing I have ever done but looking back, it was almost impossible.

Foster to adopt can be difficult. I also think it depends on area. Here, it's taking around the 2 to 2.5 year mark from coming into care to adoption.

You've also got to bere in mind that you need to refer yourselves as your names and bio parents as mummy and daddy incase they do reunification. Contact here would be 3 x 90 minutes a week but it can be every day, although unlikely it has happened.

I don't know percentages of how many do go home but I know all options get explored and bio parents can get reassessed multiple times. Just be prepared if that is the route you want to go down.

Although I have known little ones to move from a mainstream FC to a foster to adopt towards the end of proceeding where it was highly unlikely adoption was not going to be granted. So they fostered for a few months then got the adoption ball rolling.

Thank you everyone it's great to hear all these experiences & perspectives

OP I'm following if you don't mind as I'm at a similar stage to you and also comforting EP.

Hi @LimitedEdition83 I just came across your post, so I'm not sure where you are in the process. My partner and I wanted to adopt, we didn't like the sound of F2A so it wasn't really anything we were putting much thought into. However, during the adoption training (it takes 2 days), on the second day they said they were done, but if you wanted to do the F2A section it was a couple hours more. We had travelled far enough for the training so we thought we would just do it.
Cut to many months later when we were matched with a child, one of the biggest reasons we were matched was because we had done the F2A training. It was during the pandemic so things were a bit crazy anyway, but they needed to place him with someone quicker than they thought and because of the F2A we could have him instead of him going to a FC for another few months.
So we brought him home early Nov, (he was 10months old) and I think it was all signed off the following Feb and turned into adoption. In that time, he only had one short contact meeting with birth mother and we were not present.
SO, the moral of the story is, always keep your options open, you never know how things will develop. Good luck!!! 😊