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Contents

1. The Aim of Your Work
2. Counselling of Natural or Birth Parent/s
3. Counselling the Child
4. Medical Information
5. The Adoption Panel
6. After the Panel
7. Matching with Adopter/s
8. Placements
9. Post Placement Work

1. The Aim of Your Work

1. The agreement of the Adoption Panel that adoption is in the best interest of the child and the child should be placed for adoption;
2. The matching of the child with an appropriate adoptive placement; and
3. The successful application to court for placement order if necessary and ultimately an Adoption Order.

2. Counselling of Natural or Birth Parent/s

1. You must explain fully what adoption means and what the Local Authority plans for the child. You must offer birth parents independent counselling via After Adoption Yorkshire. (See leaflet - birth parent services);
2. Alternatives to adoption. Are you quite certain that adoption is the best plan for the child? Could a parental responsibility order, special guardianship order or residence order be used;
3. You must explain to the birth parents that they have a right to oppose the department's plans and that they should seek legal advice if necessary.

3. Counselling the Child

The child needs to be well prepared for permanent placement, especially if she or he has had little stability in the past. Adoption and what it means should be explained using a variety of materials, books, puppets, play-people, photographs and Life Story work etc. Even a very small child can grasp the concept of a "keeping safe " family. The sort of family she or he would like should also be discussed. You will need to consider the many different family compositions and explain these to the child.

4. Medical Information

Every child is required to have a pre-adoption health assessment which will be arranged by the Adoption and Fostering section on receipt of the completed referral. The background information as detailed on the referral is vital before this can be arranged. Form PH provides basic background information on the child's parents and should be completed in conjunction with the parent and returned to the Adoption section with the background information.  It is essential that information is returned as soon as possible, so that the health needs can be assessed well prior to panel.

5. The Adoption Panel

1. Reports
   A Child Placement Report (CPR) must be completed on the child and presented to panel with all relevant specialist reports. When matching is proposed an Adoption Placement Report (APR) must also be prepared;
   
   All reports must be returned to the section 10 working days before the panel meeting
2. Presentation
   You will be required to attend the Adoption Panel meeting to speak to your reports. Dates for future meetings are available from the Fostering and Adoption section. Social workers with less than three years post qualifying experience should always be accompanied by their team manager;
3. Placements
   Placements for the child will normally be identified from within the department. If you anticipate that your child will be hard to place this should be indicated on the CPR, as referral to outside agencies requires the panel's support.

6. After the Panel

There is a legal requirement to inform the natural parent of the panel's decision.

1. Letters for the child's parents will be prepared by the Fostering and Adoption section and forwarded to you for personal delivery;
   
   When you have delivered the letters please confirm this with the adoption section by using the acknowledgement slip attached to the letters;
2. Court Reports
   1. If a Placement Order has been recommended by the panel it will be necessary for an application to court by Legal, in conjunction with an Annex B report by the Social Worker;
      
      If a Placement Order is not appropriate and when the child has been placed with adoptive parents, under section 19 or 20, an Annex A report must be prepared and lodged with the court soon after the adopters have made their application to court.

7. Matching with Adopter/s

It is important that you notify the adoption team managers when a placement order has been made.  You may have had a family finder allocated to you where there are likely to be difficulties in identifying an adoptive family for your child and the family finder will liaise with you, see Family Finding Role and Procedure.

The Team Manager, Fostering and Adoption will identify any suitable adoptive placements and a summary of the Prospective Adopter's Report (PAR) will be forwarded to you if you wish to pursue a placement. Close liaison with the relevant Fostering and Adoption Officer or family finder is essential. Any proposed 'match' should be considered as a matter of urgency as adopters can be suggested for more than one child at a time. It is important to choose one family initially. If you are in the position where you have two families that could meet the needs of the child and you wish to visit the two families, this should be discussed with each link worker for the families. This would be the exception rather than the rule.

8. Placements

If the panel have recommended the matching of a child with a family and this has been agreed by the agency decision maker, it will be necessary to call a Placement Planning Meeting. An Adoption Placement Plan should be prepared after this meeting and the contents viewed and agreed by all parties. This meeting will usually be convened and chaired by the Fostering and Adoptions Section. The Meeting will give attention to:-

• Planning introductions;
• Setting timescales;
• Provisions of support and contact;
• Ongoing work.

9. Post Placement Work

a) Child b) Adopters c) Birth Parents

1. The social worker must visit the child within the first week of the adoption placement;
   
   Thereafter visits should be at least every week for four weeks as agreed by the placement planning meeting until the first review, when the level of future support visits can be discussed. The visits can be shared with the Fostering and Adoption officer including written records of each worker’s visit;
   
   The child must have full information about his family of origin and background. This is presented in the form of a Later Life Letter for the child to read when the adoptive parents feel it is appropriate and also a Life Story book. The adoptive parents must be comfortable with discussing the contents of both these sources of information, so it is important that they have viewed them and are aware of the contents;
   
   A child care review must be held 28 days after placement. Thereafter child care reviews must be held after three months and then held at least every six months;
2. Adoptive parents - support should be given to the adoptive parents during visits to the child. They may well need time to speak with you alone. The link fostering and adoptions officer will also offer continuing support;
   
   Continuing support, after an adoption order is made, should be carefully discussed before the adoption is finalised;
3. Birth Parents
   
   The Social Worker should visit the birth parents to inform them of the placement and given general information on the family, if this has not already been done;
   
   No identifying information should be given, birth parents must be kept informed/ counselled as long as is needed and usually until the adoption order is made. They should be encouraged to seek support from After Adoption Yorkshire, either individually or as part of a birth parent programme. They should be advised of the completion of an adoption order unless they have decided that they do not wish to be notified of the final adoption hearing;
   
   Please note that this is intended to be a guide only and should be read in conjunction with the procedures. Please feel free to contact the Fostering and Adoption section for further advice and information.

End