Stage 1 - Paperwork

Now the hard part really starts. Their referees have all received their reference requests, and June and Bill have got lots of paperwork to do too! They have dropped forms to their gp for their medicals but tha was just the start. They’ve got to do forms for safety checks, financial assessments, family trees, connections maps, personal histories and more! On top of that they have Workbooks to complete, 5 days of in-person training (Read more about those in the Stage 1 -Training Day chapter), and their own personal learning and research to complete and evidence it all to the social worker. Stage 1 was set to be a very busy couple of months!

They also started a baby wish list on Amazon at this point to help start keeping track of all the things they might need. Handy tip, when you use an Amazon Baby Wishlist you get 15% off eligible items and receive a free gift!

Day 171

Things felt like they were moving slowly and it had been a month since their last update. Bill and June have completed the majority of the paperwork and havebeen starting to sort the house. This included stripping their en-suite ready for a new bathroom and pulling up an old and slightly rotten deck. Ready to admit their limitations they also found a local gardener to start helping them get the garden family ready.

Day 178

This week their social worker, Helen, told Bill nad June that it is unlikey they are going to be looking after them moving forward. They are left feeling in limbo waiting for a new social worker to be appointed. They knew this was might be the case as they were aware there had been a large number of staffing changes due to maternity leave, retirements etc, but they had expected it to be after stage one not part way through.

Helen also informed them that some references were outstanding which was a surprise. Turned out that two of the posted replies had gone missing and the third personal reference that was missing was because the referee had never received the request. Thankfully they were able to resolve them quickly. The two lost ones were sorted as they had kept copies just in case, and the third was immediately emailed the forms.

There were also a couple employer references and a medical outstanding. Thankfully the employer references were all easy to solve and the missing medical was only because the appointment hadn't happened yet.

Day 188

Today Bill and June got a very exciting email.

They were officially at the end of stage 1 and should be starting stage 2 soon! Given that just 10 days ago they thought they were without a social worker they were over the moon at this news. They thought there was going to be delays following their last conversation with Helen but she had pulled it out the bag and got things moving for them.

Day 198

Bill and June heard from Helen today. Helen has confirmed she would be remaining their social worker afterall and booked to visit shortly after adoption training day 3.