Matching a Child.

Once a family is approved, they then become part of our pool of prospective adopters who are waiting for placements - sometimes called the 'Active Waiting List'. Matching a particular child or children with a prospective adoptive family is a process which involves the following steps.
	When a child is referred to the Adoption Team for an adoptive placement, the Adoption Manager will check whether there are any potentially suitable families within the pool.
	If you as a family are a possibility for a child, firstly your Form 'F' will be passed to the child's Social Worker, and the child's details will be passed to your Link Worker.
	If they both believe that you are a possible family for the child, then you will be visited by both your Link Worker and the Child's Social Worker. You will be given full details about the child in the form of their Permanence Report and you can ask any questions - it is never our policy to withhold information.
It is important, if you have significant doubts about a placement, and those doubts cannot be resolved by discussion, that you feel free to decline to proceed further. It is possible that adopters might feel under pressure to agree to a placement, out of the misguided fear that turning down a proposal will lead to their being labelled as overly discriminating. This is not the case. Whilst we would not approach you with a placement unless we sincerely believed that it would work out for all concerned, we still accept that adopters will have their own perspective, and that it is vital for the success of the placement that you feel genuinely positive.
	If all parties are happy to proceed, you will receive an Adoption Placement Report, which will detail the proposed arrangements for supporting the placement, the reasons for choosing the adopters as suitable for the child, as well as any proposals for Post-Adoption Contact.
	The adopter then has 10 working days to make written comments on the Adoption Placement Report, on a separate section.
	The entire report will then be submitted to the Panel with the adopter's Form F and the Child's Permanence Report.
	The Adoption Panel will then make a recommendation on the proposed placement to the Deputy Director, who will then notify the adopters of the decision.