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Adoption

Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on adoption.

Local Authority or another agency

7 replies

MumtoLaura · 09/12/2008 21:20

Hi,
We've just started to consider adoption, and have approached the local authority who is sending an info. pack. A colleague adopted with another agency - Action for Children. Does anyone know the pros and cons of using them rather than the local authority. Also are some local authorities "better" than others in some way?
Thanks

OP posts:
PuzzYuleLogs · 09/12/2008 22:04

Bump

KristinaM · 09/12/2008 22:54

i woudl advise you to keep your options open and approach EVERY agency that covers your area. get as much information as you can about them all, attend open days etc and ask lots of questions about what type of children they place and what support they offer. You only have to decide which one to go for when you agree to start the home study.

you don't want to get far down the line with one agency to discover that either they won't assess you or they don't place the kind of child you are looking for

you will probably have to dig for this information, they are not generally up front about it

i think that in general voluntary agencies offer a better service, but of course it depends on the agency. as always, personal recommendation is best, so you shoudl join Adoption Uk and speak to other local adopters. lets face it, you woudln't choose a builder out of the yellow pages

hifi · 10/12/2008 10:50

coram are very reputable, are you near london?

Nancy66 · 10/12/2008 14:52

It's worth remembering that children who are considerend very hard to place are usually those with private agencies.

MumtoLaura · 12/12/2008 11:24

Thanks for this, I will join Adoption UK; you're right Nancy66 I phoned Action for children and they deal with hard to place children, which is not what we want. (I'm in Birmingham).

OP posts:
blithedance · 12/12/2008 21:54

I would go for a local authority in the first instance if they are remotely suitable.

The reason is that (sorry if this comes across selfish, but it's the system in our area) the local authorities actually have the children to place, from their children's services teams. They will try to match with their own pool of approved adopters first before passing children to the wider adoption register (which includes adopters from private agencies). Essentially that means that the younger, easier to place children, get matched with the LA's approved adopters.

Only harder to place children such as older ones, difficult circumstances, bigger sibling groups, special needs, unusual ethnic criteria, tend to make it onto Children Who Wait etc. Of course these children need families too, but if you feel that it's beyond you to manage those kind of issues, you may be better with a LA even if you find the "service" a bit slower.

I say this because I know a couple who got approved by a private agency, they would make superb parents and are younger than many adopters, but they will be lucky to be considered for a baby or toddler because of that system, they are reliant on the publications.

That's a bit of background and that's why as Kristina says, ask the agency for the age breakdown of the children they have available at the moment or placed last year to give you an idea. I was staggered to find out that our LA actually placed a lot of under-twos, when people are always being told there are no white babies available for adoption.

Other questions you could ask are - what post adoption support is in place, are you likely to get an adoption allowance, how long should you expect to get approved (about a year after prep course), and do you fit the profile of adopters they are looking for. If you are prepared to take a sibling group of 2, you will be much more interesting to them!

drspouse · 16/12/2008 18:43

It does depend also on the arrangement in your area. We applied to a VA originally because they seemed to have a clue (!) and our LA had an odd rule about age that in fact they didn't seem to be aware existed, when we asked later.

In our area several VAs and a few LAs form a consortium and children are mainly placed within this consortium - but not necessarily within an LA. So if your VA has that arrangement it means you get a pretty wide selection of children.

Some LAs on the other hand are absolutely tiny (one near us is a unitary authority and places less than 10 children a year, probably nearer 5, approving about 10 adopters a year I think). So you'd be pretty much guaranteed to go outside your area which brings you back to the same problem.

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