Concurrent Planning

[KumquatMay]

Hi everyone

DH and I are (hopefully!) starting Stage 1 of the adoption process very soon and have been asked about whether we would consider concurrency. I just wondered if anyone has any insight or has done it themselves and has any advice/guidance? We've been to an information meeting and know about the technicalities of it, but it would be interesting to hear about any personal experience anyone can share.

Thanks

Depends on how concurrent it works out too be, sibling group of how many children ??? , also likely hood of other's in the future possibly adopted by other family's, complications of contact's etc. Most probable unlikely but not impossible as we experienced , has worked well though must say, all are adults some with family's, and masses of Grand Children
all working and happy.

We have been through the process. What advice would you like & I will try to answer

Concurrency is all about the adults taking the emotional risks, children remaining in the same place means there is less risk to their emotional landscape than moving from home to FC to adopters. Multiple transitions compound trauma and loss.

I can't talk from personal experience (I am a SW in the field) but would say that your personal resilience needs to be robust. No judgement here but it often isn't if you have been through a journey of IVF etc. That might be stating the obvious but I often do because it is worth self assessing, along with your SW. You should be able to do this whilst going through the adoption assessment.

I think what is critical at the moment is the impact of the Munby judgement on decisions in court. Munby thinks he was clear, and he was criticising the SW & Guardian's reports, which was right and proper but the outcome despite him further clarifying has been very significant in the lower courts. Fewer Placement Orders are being granted, more SGO's are being granted, more appeals to Placement and Adoption Orders are being allowed. This is the result of a conflict between speeding up the Public Law Outline (& therefore care proceedings) and human rights.

It is (in my view) the judiciary and the legislature having a dispute and it means you will be taking more of a risk than you once were.