Information pack and event
When you contact us with an interest in adoption, we will send you
details of adopting with Kent in an information pack. Contact
details will be included if you wish to speak to an experienced
adoption worker from the local team about adoption with Kent and
your particular situation.
You will be invited to attend one of our information events on
adoption, held regularly around the county, where you can learn
more about the process and hear from other people who have adopted
a child.
We will help and guide you at all stages of your
application to adopt.
Initial home visit
If you decide to continue, you return the form given to you at
the information evening and we will arrange for a member of the
adoption team to visit you at home to discuss your interest in
greater detail. We can consider whether there are particular issues
to explore further: for example, concerns regarding health.
Preparation course
You and your partner, if you have one, will be expected to
attend a preparation course which runs over four days. The course
provides some teaching about adoption, combined with your
participation through large and small group discussions. The course
encourages awareness of the feelings and actions of everyone
involved in adoption, especially the needs of adopted children.
Adoption assessment, references and medicals
If we accept your application to become an adopter, we will
allocate an adoption social worker to undertake an adoption
assessment with you. You will have the opportunity to discuss
issues surrounding adoption and talk everything through together.
It will involve gathering information about you and your situation.
You will be asked to undertake a medical with your GP and various
checks and references will be requested, including police checks.
We will also ask to contact previous partners, particularly if the
care of children was involved in your relationship. This will take
several months at least to complete.
Once the adoption assessment is completed, a written report will
be presented to the Adoption Panel for consideration.
Adoption Panel
Adoption panel membership is prescribed by government
legislation and guidance. Adoption agencies are required to appoint
a diverse range of people to be panel members. Including a legal
and medical advisor, there are independent members and others with
a background in children's social services. All will have knowledge
of adoption from different perspectives and an understanding of the
needs of children who require adoption.
Adoption applicants are invited to attend the panel meeting when
their assessment report is presented and their approval as adopters
is being considered.
Your adoption social worker is first invited to the Panel
meeting to clarify any points that may not be clear and then
applicants are welcomed to the meeting. You will be able to ask
questions and then will answer a few questions from panel members,
you will be asked to wait while they consider their recommendation.
The Chair of the panel will let you know the recommendation, which
will then go to the agency decision maker for a final decision. You
will be advised in writing of the final decision.
Waiting for a child
Once you become an approved adopter, consideration will be given
to matching you with a child who needs adoption. When you are
selected as a possible family for a specific child, your adoption
social worker will contact you to discuss their details. If you
wish to take your interest further, you will be given the
opportunity to meet the child's social worker and foster carer for
the child. You will be given as much information as we can about
the child's history, including their health and medical
history.
The match between a child and their proposed adopters is
presented to the adoption panel for their consideration and
recommendation. Adopters are invited to attend the panel meeting to
discuss with panel members the reasons why they would like the
child to join their family. The question of adoption support
services to help the child and their new family is considered in a
detailed adoption support plan.
Introductions
When you have been matched with a child, a programme of
introduction will be planned to enable you to get to know each
other. There will be an opportunity for you to meet people
important in the child's life such as teachers or hospital
consultants, and where possible one or both of the birth parents.
The first meetings with a child will take place at their foster
home, and later there will be visits to your home to help the child
feel more comfortable and at ease. Introductions are reviewed and a
date is agreed when the child will move to live with you.
Moving in
After a child moves in with their new family, regular meetings
are held to consider their progress, as the child remains the
responsibility of the local authority until they are legally
adopted. Under the new Adoption Act, adopters acquire legal
parental responsibility for a child as soon as they move in, but
this is shared with the local authority and the birth parents until
legal adoption. The local authority is able to decide how the other
parties will use their parental responsibility during this
period.
Application for an adoption order
You will apply to the court to adopt the child, helped by your
adoption worker. Your adoption worker and the child's social worker
write a joint report to explain the application to the court, and
they will also tell the court about the child, the birth family,
and about you, the adopters. Once the report has been fully
considered and the application agreed, a date is set for the
adopters and the child to attend court for the order to be granted.
Their legal ties to their birth family are severed at this
point.
Post adoption
If it has been agreed that a child will have some continued
links, either by a letterbox service or by supervised meetings,
with important people from their past, then contact arrangements
will proceed, helped by adoption support staff. Other
adoption
support services are available if wanted, such as training
workshops on aspects of adoption and social events for adoptive
families.
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