Speeding up adoptions

[fostering]

Does anyone have any good ideas about how LA's could speed up the adoption process.

I understand there are legal constraints but what has worked in practice for any of you out there that other LA's could try?

Agreed often its the blooming judges who want ss too go back and support the family more.

Or the judge allows appeal after appeal gurr

But pinkhocy the people in my view who are clearly to blame is the PARENTS once in becomes clear they are not going t o be having them back the kindest thing and the biggest act of love would be to allow ss to go ahead with a full care order by they stall block put family members who are wholey unsuitable
Go to the mp get them involved then they age out of being adopted now who dose that help.

Littleflora I have read your other posts and I just wanted to let you know I was in a very similar position. I adopted two of my foster children. The LA were opposed to the adoptions for no other reason than they saw me as diffcult because I had questioned their decisions in the past. We had no choice than to deregister with them.

I filed several complaints through the complaints procedure and the SW's involved were disciplined. In fact one of them was sacked (Not their first misdemeanor).

We are now with an IFA. TBH if it werent for the fact we have our children via LA I wish we had joined our IFA a long time ago. They are much more realistic and the support is second to none.

I am pleased you adopted your LO and I am sure you will be up to another challenge in the near future. I wish you all the best

Fish
x

In our case ss stated the case and the judge agreed. ss were the planners.

FTNC - LA have a knack of labelling carers difficult to deal with. SW in my experience do not like being questioned or challenged. I think this is a shame because if their decisions were transparent then they would be easy to explain. SW's have become terribly defensive rather than open to discussion and new ideas.

We have to attend meetings so SW's can file that discussions have been held when in fact we have just been told what to do. Any suggestions we make are turned down because they don't fit their rules and regulations. One size fits all - this does not promote children coming first because clearly one size does not fit all children.

Foster carers as part of a team is sub text for part of the team that does as they are told without question or critizism.

I think it rarely the case that SW are the reason children are in care too long, it is more often the judge who allows (as littleflora says) for more assessmnets to be carried out and the ensuing delays mean the child becomes too old to adopt. Where is the common sense in all of this, and the child's needs?

There seem to be lots of negatives and few positives. Judges should perhaps speak to foster carers on a regular basis?

In my case of adopting my LO I was in the Witness Box for three days! The SW made a fool of herself within 20 mins.

Secretly, I feel the Judge listened to the FC's in our case.

I would say to any FC who is against a LA in Court Hearings - Do not be afraid to say it as it is. You are not the bottom of the shit pile. You will be listened to.

I came out of that Courtroom, on the day of Judgement, buzzing. Jobless, but buzzing!

And my LO's apperent joy at me telling her she would have to put up with me for the rest of her life was priceless!

Sounds horrendous, I sincerely hope I'm never in a witness box. 3 days you say. OMG!!

Lol! at Fostering. Yes, 3 days! And I would do it again! After what LA put my trusting, defenceless LO through 3 days in the witness box was the least I could do, to make sure her voice, wishes and feelings were heard.

As I said, her SW did not have LO's best interests at heart. And she made a right arsehole of herself in the Witness Box.

I knew I was telling the truth and so had nothing to fear - except stoning from birth family

I can still see the dirty looks and whispered namecalling toward me, from the LA staff, and solicitors and barristers etc as we emerged from the Court Room. Still makes me chuckle

I have plenty of experience of Judges and believe it or not most of them DO live in the real world, are parents themselves, and realise that SWs don't always get it right. Unfortunately a lot of the time they are bound by law to make sure things are carried out correctly, hence annoyances like extra assessments just when you thought there were no more family members who could possibly come forwards!

When the Judges I know found out I was going to be a foster carer most of them acknowledged it is one of the hardest jobs in the world, but makes a great difference, and all of them said they absolutely do listen to any evidence from a FC above anyone else.

Scarlet, yes that makes sense. When a child has been living in a foster home for years then obviously the people who know the child best is the Foster Carers.

How on earth can SW's be making the best decisions about a child's future when they don't see them for six months at a time - and even then they spend just a few minutes with them.

In the years that LO was fostered, by us, she had no less than 9 SW's! The one who represented the LA at Court was a little wet behaind the ears to say the least.

I don't think any of my LO's SW's would know her if they passed her in the street, yet whenever I disagreed with decisions they were making I was told, "Yes but you have to understand I am the Social Worker. I make the decisions. I have a degree (so new that the ink had not dried). You are only the Foster Carer."

Thankfully the Judge, in this case, made absolutely the right decision. Cost the LA an absolute fortune but hey ho that was their money to waste as they saw fit.

I shudder when I think how they could have wasted my precious daughter's life.