The process

So, I've been looking at this for a few years and have accumulated a bit of knowledge around it but most of you are unlikely to be familiar with it, so I thought it would be worth sharing.

Initial conversations and (mandatory) information days with the adoption agency or agencies (I'll come back to agencies in another post) is called Pre-Stage one. This is where you have all the basic eligibility discussions with the social worker and commit to the agency that you will go through - that agency will also be the one to provide support for the first three years after the adoption.

The process steps up a great deal, once you have completed the registration of interest form. This is the start of stage one. The target is to complete stage one within two months. This stage is where your suitability to be an adopter is addressed and confirmed. Referees, medical, why you want to be an adopter, who you would likely be appropriate for (number of children, ages, needs, backgrounds...) and police checks. You get your first part of the training in this stage and complete a workbook as you go through. I've heard people describe it as having homework every week in between your social worker visits. 

Stage two has a target duration of four months. This is the main assessment and training stage. (There is specific training for Close Friends and family.) Your strengths as a parent are being assessed and all goes into an Adopter Report written by the social worker, which goes to a panel to approve. If approved you move on to stage three  

Stage three

This is the stage where you are looking for your match. I'll cover this in much more detail in a different post. 

Once a match had been found and the initial checks and discussions have been held, the decision goes to an approval panel to agree it.

Stage four

You get an introduction period - this can vary - two weeks wasn't unusual previously but can be six or can be whatever is needed as a series of visits and short stays leading up to the child moving in. After a while, you can apply to the court to become their legal parent. 

Those were my cliff notes version of the process. Here's a link if you'd like to dig in a bit more:

https://www.first4adoption.org.uk/the-adoption-process/