Step by step guide to adoption
Step 1 Express an interest
Contact us by letter, telephone or e-mail. We will send out an initial information pack to you within five working days.
Step 2 Initial visit
After reading our information pack let us know if you would like to hear more and we will arrange to visit you in your own home. This will happen within two months of you contacting us again.
Step 3 Preparation session
If you are still interested in proceeding we will invite you onto a three and ½ day preparation session: ‘Preparing to Adopt’. This will give you a lot more detail about adoption, the chance to meet people who have already adopted and the opportunity to think about all the important issues. What are the needs of an adopted child? What are your strengths and vulnerabilities as an adoptive parent likely to be? Can you make the commitment necessary to make a difference to a child’s life?
Step 4 Expression of interest
Following the preparation session, if you decide you wish to proceed you will need to inform us. At this stage we may ask you for permission to follow-up the references and checks which the law requires.
Step 5 Formal application and the home study suitability to adopt report
We will invite you to make your formal application. A worker will be allocated to complete your suitability to adopt report. You will probably already have met the worker during the preparation sessions. The law requires that we will ask you for permission to follow-up the references and checks if these have not already been done. The adopter’s assessment report will assess your suitability to adopt by building up a thorough profile of you. An Adoption Worker will make several visits to your home and ask detailed questions about your own family background, your childhood and your present circumstances. If you are a couple, we will want to see you together and individually. You will also have to have a full medical examination by your own GP and you will be asked to provide three personal referees who will be visited by a member of our team. You will also be asked to make your own contributions to the report. If you have other children in your family (e.g. your birth child or an adopted child) we will also need to meet with and talk to them.
The home study is demanding - it can feel intrusive and it will take several months to complete, but there are good reasons why everything is explored in depth with you. Adoption is for life; we have to be sure you are right for the role. Just as importantly, you must be certain you can make a success of it.
All the information is then put into an Adopters Report, which includes a detailed assessment of you as a potential adoptive parent, including the results of the medical, local authority and police checks and three personal referees. A key part of the assessment is to help both you and us to decide the sort of child or children you feel you could adopt. Could you, for example, look after a child with a physical or learning difficulty? What age would you consider? And how many children would you take? All these matter and will be included in the report.
You will have the opportunity to see the report, except for the personal references, and to add your comments before the next step.
In addition, we need to contact any previous partners, or adult children, in order to check out with them that there are no issues that might make it difficult for you to parent a child in the future. We will also contact your present or previous employer if your job included contact with children and your present employer where appropriate to confirm your employment status.
It should take no longer than six months from the time when you submit your application to be considered as prospective adopters at Bury’s Adoption Panel.
Step 6 The Adoption Panel
The home study report goes forward to an Adoption Panel which is made up of social workers, other professionals and independent people. Your Adoption Worker will attend to answer any questions from panel members. You will also be invited to attend if you wish to do so. Once they have considered the report the Panel will recommend whether or not you should be approved as an adoptive parent and for which types of children. Remember - 94% of people who get this far are approved.
Within a week of receiving the Panel’s recommendation the agency will decide whether or not to approve you.
Step 7 Matching you up to a child
The information in your Adopters report will be used to help the matching process when looking at children whose needs you may be able to meet.
Once you are approved, the agency will begin to look for suitable children waiting for adoption. Bury is a member of Adoption 22 which is a consortium of North West adoption agencies. Your details will be placed within Adoption 22 to enable us to identify children within this area whose needs you may be able to meet, and therefore for whom you may be a good "match".
Step 8 Placement
Once a child or children have been identified whose needs you may be able to meet, you will be given full information about their background. If you want to proceed, you will meet their Social Worker. If you all agree, and after a gradual period of introduction, your adoptive child/ren will come to live with you and become part of your new family. Remember, you are not on your own now - we will be able to offer you support and advice after placement and will be responsible for keeping in touch with you and your family until the adoption is finalised. You should talk to your Adoption Worker about what adoption support services are available in your area. Your child may also need to keep links with their birth family and this will be fully discussed with you before you decide to go ahead.
Step 9 The Adoption Order
When your adoptive child has successfully settled down in your family and if everyone, including the child’s social worker, agrees, you will be able to apply to the court for an Adoption Order to be made. Once the order is made, all rights and responsibilities originally held by the birth parents transfer to you.
Step 10 Adoption Support
The new Adoption & Children Act 2002 recognises that Adoption Support may be a life long requirement. You may be able to access services as and when you need them, (according to local provision) and following an assessment of your needs.
