Matching and Location

[WanderingFlame]

Hi everyone,

We’re currently in the matching process, we were approved 5 months ago, but have struggled for various reasons to match with a child. Our last attempt ended due to the BM living too close (having moved to our area last month) according to SW, but SW has said it’s too early to start looking outside of the local area. Have been told it’s easier for introductions week and potentially direct contact. Is this standard?

I’m also struggling to understand the why SW is so against looking more nationally, as we’re 30 mins drive to the next region. Do local authorities have targets or quotas to meet to reduce the number of children they have in care, or increase the number of adoptions that take place? And could this be holding us back?

Hi @WanderingFlame you are exactly right! Their main ain for accepting adopters is to find homes for the children on their books. They like you to spend around 6 months on their books before approving you on somewhere like Linkmaker. Have they told you about Linkmaker?

Unfortunately, 5months isn't that long in the grand scheme of things. I think 6-12months is average after approval. We were an unusual case as it was covid and we had a rubbish SW that got the sack/quit right before we were supposed to be approved to had to start all again with our meetings so the new SW could make the notes. We were not happy!

It is frustrating, but it will happen and it will all be worth the wait! Good luck!

Hiya @WanderingFlame !

so @MyTwoDads is right they encourage you to stay local initially as they have invested in you & want to place local children.

however this is not a legal requirement. We were registered with link maker straight away & ended up being approached by family finder on there about 6 weeks after approval panel with a lo whose story really appealed.

we discussed with our SW who was amazing & said it’s about the child finding the right family if you think that’s you then go for it.

lo was about 2 hours away we explored options for contact as was a ffa placement and it was agreed they would support birth mom travelling part way so we only had to drive with lo for about an hour.

it was a lot to do every week but worth it for us. So you have to weigh all that up!!

he was placed about 3 weeks after initial contact.

we’re 7 years on now and we like that we never have to stress about where we go locally.

it’s got to be reasonable for the child.

it has limited certain things for eg the team he was placed by had much more post adoption support & activities than our team but we couldn’t access these as was too far!!!

got to be about what is right for the child & for you

We were turned down for a child because we lived too close to birth family - in hindsight I think this was probably a kind way of turning us down when they'd found another family they preferred for whatever subjective reasons.
I don't know that there are targets, but yes they will prioritise placing the children in their care. We were told we could access linkmaker after six months so you're nearly there, but perhaps speak to the service manager if that doesn't happen or you want to try to get access sooner.
There are pros and cons to having more or less distance- we still ended up adopting a child with family very locally, there are risks there but I also think that growing up in the same area provides a link to birth family's history and culture and hope our child benefits from knowing that as they get older.
If you're having direct contact then I would think you need a bit of distance though.

They have paid to assess you and if you go with another agency, they will have lost you as an adopter of one of their children.

But honestly, it can be helpful to adopt children from another part of the country as there is little chance of bumping into birth family.

Think in particular about A&E, CAMHS, paediatrics, secondary schools and colleges, special needs schools, big supermarkets, big shopping centres, cinemas, retail parks.

It depends on where you live of course. I live in a place that people from a wide area come to for shopping. I wouldn't have wanted to adopt a local child.