Your Adoption Journey

5. Linking and Matching This can be a frustrating time for adopters. After the assessment and initial excitement of being approved as adopters it can feel like suddenly no-one is interested or doing anything. But trust me this is far from the case. Family Finding social workers will be doing lots and lots of work behind the scenes trying to link or match children to the best fitting families and completing mounds of paperwork. The search usually starts locally, then as time goes on it expands further afield. You can also be involved in this process through magazines and Adoption link. Although, I would speak to your social worker as they may already have profiles in mind or there may be timescales attached to when they start using various resources available to them. Your social worker will also send your PAR to children’s social workers to consider potential matches. You will also get some basic profiles and if interested you can request the Child Permanence Report (CPR). T...

4. Approval Panel The approval panel is an independent body that recommends whether you should be approved as an adopter. They will read your PAR, references etc then make a recommendation whether they feel you are suitable to be approved as adopters. Panels may vary slightly between authorities but they generally operate in the same way. The panel is made up of a group of individuals from various personal and professional backgrounds which can include the medical adviser, social workers, adoptive parents, people who were adopted or fostered and lots of other backgrounds and experience. When you enter you are likely going to be faced with a room full of complete strangers all smiling at you, they will have name cards in front of them and will go around the room introducing themselves and what their role is (not that you will remember). You will be invited to attend panel with your social worker and the panel chair will usually meet you beforehand to explain how it works and help...