Panel

Day 284

The day before panel. Helen caught up with Bill and June and shared the questions panel wanted to ask them. She took them through the process of the panel call.

• They would join the call and wait in the "lobby" until the panel were ready.
• Panel would invite them in when they were ready.
• The panel would go round one by one and introduce themselves and explain their connection to adoption.
• They would then ask each of the questions that had been shared in turn.
• Once complete, they would ask Bill and June to leave the call while they deliberate.
• They would the be invited back into the call to hear the panels recommendations and reasons why.

Helen spent some time helping them prepare how they might choose to answer the panels questions and made sure they had all the information they needed ahead of the next days call.

Day 285

Everything had been building to this moment. Day 285 was the day that all the training, self-reflection, interviews, references, workbooks, and learning had been leading up to.

Panel sounds like it could be a scary experience — a meeting with a not-insignificant number of people: seven or eight panel members, plus observers, people taking minutes, and your social worker. It’s enough to make anyone nervous, especially when the outcome feels so important.

The great thing about panel, though, is that they want you to succeed. Ultimately, adoption panels want more good adopters, and as long as your social worker has done their job well beforehand, there should be nothing at panel to cause concern. Another helpful aspect is that they send you their questions ahead of time, giving you the chance to prepare and show your best selves.

For Bill and June, the experience was fabulous. They were the first from their training group to attend panel and were highly nervous. However, the panel were warm and welcoming, and they soon felt comfortable chatting and answering questions. The session wasn’t long, and following the conversation, the panel were pleased to give them a unanimous “Yes” recommendation to adopt!

Linking would have to wait while Helen took some annual leave, but she reassured them that she was already working on arrangements.