As you may have read by our latest blog, we met our dear Little Man recently and it was so much more than we ever expected. So what now? There are still a few more meetings to be had including several ‘bump in’ meetings planned. This will assist in the transitional period and will hopefully allow Little Man to adjust smoothly.
One of the most information intense meetings that adopters attend is called the Life Appreciation Day and we’ll be blogging about that very soon. In short this is a meeting that involves the adopters meeting all the professionals that have met and supported the child. This includes Social Workers, Foster Carers, Nursery Workers, Medical Advisors and others that may have worked with the child. Whilst adopters will already have a great deal of information and knowledge about their son or daughter, this meeting is there to give a full and detailed overview of everything from the time the child came into the care of the Local Authority.
The final meeting is Matching Panel. This is a formal meeting between panel members from the Local Authority and the Adopters. Much like approval panel, the panel consists of different people from different backgrounds who will have read the report about the child and prospective adopters. This panel meeting is there to assess the suitability of the match between the child and adopters. A decision is given after the meeting and if approval is given, ratification of this is normally given within 10 days by the Agency Decision Maker (ADM). They will either confirm or disagree with the decision.
Once all these meetings have taken place it’s normally a few weeks after matching panel that formal introductions will start. There are quite a number of meetings as you will have read by now, but it’s a well planned process to ensure a smooth and supportive placement.
So keep your eyes peeled for our next blog about our penultimate meeting - our Life Appreciation Day!