P
ADOPTION PREPARATION
At this stage you should have a pretty good idea about adoption through what you have read and researched and you will have a grasp as to how complex the process. The futher you go through the adoption process, the more you will begin to understand the challenges and consequences of adoption and the more refinded your questions and knowledge becomes, so that by the time your child comes home, you will be fully prepared.
Before you begin the homestudy process each local authority has a duty under AAR 24 to arrange a preparation course which will give you an opportunity to learn in detail about children who are likely to be placed for adoption. This will give you a chance to review if adoption is for you and to become more confident in your choice of completing your family.
Your preparation will not only come from the preparation course but also from your experience in caring and looking after a child. The social worker will decide on how much preparation they think that you need. eg.if this is your second adoption you will need less preparation than the first.
6. Adoption preparation may be provided through a combination of group activities, such as workshops and tutorials, and individual work such as research and reading. Some
preparation, during the latter stages, should be experiential, involving prospective adopters in role play or similar active participation. By this point, prospective adopters are likely to feel
more at ease and confident. Active participation often helps them look at their own experiences and to identify and recall what they have learnt. But people have different
learning styles and active participation should not be obligatory. For those who prefer passive learning, a better way to learn may be watching others who are prepared to
participate in role playing.
7. In some cases, the outcome of enhanced CRB checks may be unavailable while prospective adopters are participating in adoption preparation. So any information provided
to prospective adopters about children should only be of a general nature and should not enable their identity and whereabouts to be established.
8. Preparation should be structured into modules and sub-modules to help prospective adopters learn over time in particular groups, according to their needs. For example,
prospective adopters who are foster carers, from ethnic minorities, or prospective intercountry adopters may have some common knowledge needs but their other needs will
be different. With a modular approach, all prospective adopters could participate in core modules, separating into sub-groups to participate in specialist modules. Prospective
adopters who have adopted recently may need little preparation; they may have more to contribute than to learn.
9. The agency may decide to alter the emphasis within modules to reflect the backgrounds and needs of children who are likely to be placed with its approved prospective adopters.
For example, a voluntary adoption agency may wish to concentrate preparation around the needs of children who are likely to be relinquished for adoption or on sibling
group placements.
Content
10. The core range of issues to be covered in adoption preparation is listed below in a minimum curriculum, which may be supplemented with more preparation if the agency
considers it necessary.
PART 1: OVERVIEW, ASSESSMENT PROCESS AND DECISION MAKING
An overview of the adoption process and the likely time it will take, the legal framework and timescales for different stages;
assessment process, including how the information is gathered, assessed and presentedin reports, especially the prospective adopter’s report, the brief prospective adopter’s
report, and the prospective adopter’s review report;
decision making process and the roles of the adoption panel, agency decision maker and the IRM; and
for prospective intercountry adopters, additional information about the intercountry adoption process, caring for a child from another country and the requirements of
foreign authorities.
PART 2:MATCHING, PLACEMENT AND ADOPTION
matching and placement, including the Adoption Register for England and Wales,
the child’s permanence report, the adoption placement report, the placement plan,
and reviews;
adoption support; and adoption orders and parental responsibility.
PART 3: THE CHILD
children who are likely to be placed for adoption and their backgrounds
the difficulties some children experience, such as neglect and abuse, and the effect on
their development and capacity to form secure attachments;
the perspective of the birth family;
child’s sense of separation and loss;
child’s contact needs;
attachment needs; and
basic child development.
PART 4: SKILLS AND CAPACITIES
key parenting skills and the parenting capacities needed by prospective adopters;
caring for a child who has been traumatised by neglect and abuse;
understanding and managing health care needs;
caring for sibling groups;
caring for children who come from a different ethnic group with limited information about their past and no birth family contact, especially in intercountry adoption;
learning from experienced adopters, including managing stress and developing resilience;
understanding the significance of the child's identity, their birth family, and the need for openness;
contact, indirect or direct; and
equality, including ethnicity, disability, religion and sexual orientation.
11. For prospective adopters who are already caring for their own children, their children should also be prepared for the arrival of a child placed for adoption.This is best provided by
their parent with support from the practitioner.
12. Adoption preparation should be a supportive process for prospective adopters. There is no formal assessment or ‘examination’ when preparation is completed but it may be helpful
if the prospective adopter is given some feedback, not least so that any need for follow-up preparation can be identified. It is recommended that a feedback form is used so that the
prospective adopter and their tutor can together record an evaluation of the preparation and identify any issues that need further exploration. This form could then be passed to the
practitioner responsible for their assessment.
13. Where the prospective adopters are being considered as concurrent carers, the plan will be to prepare and assess them as foster carers and prospective adopters. Their
preparation will be specialised, covering their need to have particular emotional strength;
their commitment as foster carers to support the child’s possible reunification with their birth parents;
and their possible role as prospective adopters for the child, if it is decided reunification is not in the child’s interests.
14. While preparation will help prospective adopters, there are limitations to theoretical learning. Many prospective adopters may benefit from the opportunity of later preparation
or training. Many parenting skills will be learned,developed and tested when a child is placed
