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Fostering for Adoption - top tips and info on starting SAP and SAL with FfA placement

jampot_jaffa September 2, 2019 01:05

Hi all,

I wasn't sure which section to put this in... This one seemed the best.

I'm one of 2 families being considered for a Fostering for Adoption placement for a baby who is going to be born very very soon.

Is there anyone on here who has recent (or not so recent) experience of being an FfA carer to parent, who can share any tips about what really helped them during this process, or maybe things that they wished they'd known at the start?

Also, if anyone recently took leave from work starting as a foster carer and moving to adoption/adoption leave and pay, can you tell me how that worked and how you set it going? The publication 'The Role of FfA in achieving early permanence for children' says if you're eligible to claim SAP and SAL (statutory adoption pay and leave) you can do so at the point of FfA placement and refers you to gov.uk/adoption-pay-leave for more info, but there's no mention of FfA there...

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Edited 17/02/2021
Familyof3 September 2, 2019 19:37

Hi.

We met our f2a child 18 months ago and I can happily say we are now officially a family of 3 as of October last year. He was 2 months old but born 16 weeks premature so he was still in hospital but was due to be discharged. As he was so premature he was a newborn baby still when we met him.

In terms of pay it was a bit all up in the air at first as we only had 5 days notice from being chosen, to meeting him. We where on holiday for 4 of those days (yes it was all so quick). We knew we where in the pipeline so we had to fill out the paperwork for mat b form before we went on holiday just in case as we weren't due to see our lo's SW until the day we where due to fly to Germany. We had a phonecall the day after to say we had been chosen and they wanted us to meet him 3 days later. It was all very confusing.

One tip I will give you is make sure you have your work on side and keep them up to date. My boss is a great boss and very understanding. She had to find a lot of loopholes to let me have as little notice as I did. HR wernt happy that I started adoption leave without having a matching certificate as usually in a normal adoption you would have a matching certificate before you started introductions. But luckily my manager sorted it out for me. Don't ask me how but she did something lol. We also received fostering allowance until matching panel. Once it went from a fostering placement to an adoption placement we were allowed to receive child benefit allowance. Receiving fostering allowance didn't affect my adoption pay.

Hope this helps and good luck x

Edited 17/02/2021
jampot_jaffa September 3, 2019 13:08

Thanks Familyof3 - that's really helpful insight into your experience. Luckily work is really supportive and someone is on standby to cover my work.

And my SW has confirmed about providing the matching certificate, which I think from work's perspective will just be a formality as we're a tiny organisation.

I'm glad my experience hasn't involved a holiday for most of the notice period (which isn't much longer than yours was)! I can't imagine how intense and challenging that must have been!...

Edited 17/02/2021

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