How long will it take to become approved as an adopter?
Stage 1
When you contact us to express your interest, we will send you an information pack within five days. If you want to proceed, you return a basic information form to us.
Stage 2
A social worker from the Adoption Team will make every effort to visit you within a month to discuss your application and answer any questions you may have.
Stage 3
If we and you want to proceed with your application, we will invite you to a preparation group. We will endeavour to do this as soon as possible. The preparation group is a training course which will tell you:
- what adoption is all about
- how being adopted affects children, and
- how the birth families of the children are affected by adoption.
If there is a wait of a few months for a preparation group in Barnet, it may be possible to shorten the wait time by attending a group run by another local authority which is a member of the North London Adoption Consortium.
Stage 4
If you apply to become an adopter after the preparation group then you will be allocated a social worker to undertake your assessment. The assessment will include talking about parenting in general and about your own childhood. Referees and those who have a significant impact on you family life will be interviewed.
Stage 5
In the normal course of things, the completed assessment will be presented to the Adoption Panel six months later who then decide whether you can adopt or not. You can choose to go along to the meeting of the panel, to talk to them and ask questions.
Email this pageLast modified by: Lauren Burbidge on 12/11/2010