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I'd suggest contacting your local authority or any voluntary agencies locally to get some initial advice. You can contact any number of these but if you do decide to proceed then you register with just one. Concurrency /foster to adopt is a tough road. There is a chance that the child may return to birth family and so you would need to be sure that you could handle such a risk (even if the risk is deemed low). I think LAs and voluntary agencies have open evenings so this may be a good start. Good luck

By the way, if you decide to proceed, and you continue posting on the boards here, best change your name to something anonymous. These are public boards and birth families, social workers, etc can ( and do, particularly SW ) access them. But the support is brilliant which is why we do it !! Best Wishes Pingu

Hi, Good luck with the journey, whatever you choose to go forward with. I would say investigate Concurrency and Foster to Adopt carefully. We did Foster To Adopt and ended up adopting our son (5months on placement). It was a tough road but worth it. I know a few people who have gone down the concurrent fostering route and by comparison it feels a much harder route emotionally. Both have risks but from what I understand, concurrency involves fostering while the local authorities work with the birth parents to try and help them be able to care for their child eventually and hopefully keep the child with their birth family (adoption is very possible, but not necessarily the expected route), foster to adopt cases are normally when the expected outcome is adoption (so removing multiple moves between foster carers) due to previous family history etc. Different LAs have different takes on this, but from my experience this is where they stand generally,.