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I supose the first thing is do you want to go for a LA or a Voluntary agency? I personally wanted LA. My reasons-I work for one and felt I knew more about how they worked, I also feel that you are more likely to get the first 'pick' of their childreb as the LA will always try and place 'in house' first. I am NOT criticising those who go for LA but For me there was also an issue of money. It costs a LA a small fortune to place a child with an approved VA adopter and I felt more comfortable going with the LA.. In terms of who to choose, I was lucky to have knowledge of The main LA in my area. I chose one which was furthest away from my town but near enough to consider me/ it's about 20 miles away and somewhere I have no links to at all. This has put me at a massive advantage as they are more likely to place those chilfren whose parents carry risks etc with Me. I also based my decision on efficiency/ ie how quickly they responded to my enquiry etc. I have had a brill experience with LA but I am sure there are many who have not. I think the general consensus is that VA tend to be more sympathetic to slightly complex applications , and offer much better post adoption support! Go to a couple of open evenings and go with your heart. I wouldn't go and check every one out or it will seem a bigger decision than perhaps it is. They mostly follow the same process/ and I suppose noones experience is the same. Best of luck I felt as thought Id have

Thank you for your reply, we have another 6 evenings on our list to attend... I feel I may narrow these down, pre-attendance, now and 'test' their efficiency. In the end we will take the plunge with whoever feels right. Thank you again.

We went with a neighbouring la, not the la we live in. They prefer to place children away from birth family usually so if you are out of their particular la then you shouldn't face issues of living too close to a potential match. I say shouldn't- one link we had couldn't be progressed as the children had adopted birth family living in our town. What are the chances! One thing I didn't think about was how many children each la have waiting to be adopted. Some won't get as many children coming through as others- and you can go with any. Just remember their 3 day course will be in their county though and so will adoption panel. It's probably worth asking how long they expect he process to take too as some are really busy so potential adopters can end up waiting to be assigned a SW etc. Good luck with it all.

I think there's benefits to both, here's my take on it!! Local authorities try and place their children in house first, with their own adopters, so if you are considering very young children with no known/few additional needs they will probably be the best choice for you. Agencies tend to have older, more difficult to place children or sibling groups etc. But... agencies seem to be more flexible. There have been quite a few stories on here where people have been turned down or had bad experiences with LA's who have then gone on to successfully adopt with an agency. Again only from reading on here agencies seem to approve people quicker than LA's. We went with a LA. We had a delay in pre stage one as we had some building work going on and that had to be fully completed before they'd accept our application formally. However after that initial hiccup the whole process from starting out to bringing LO home only took 14 months. The adoption process is hard. It's intrusive and frustratingly slow but when you bring your LO home it's all worth it!! Good luck!! Blueberry x

My husband and I started our journey in Feb this year, I didn't want to contact too many different agencies or authorities because I was worried the mixed advice was going to muddy the waters. I was kind of right, we met with our LA initially and was taken back by how 'right' it felt to be meeting with them... The guy we met with was brilliant and when he left my husband and I both said we both felt like he wanted us to register with them, but he told us to contact other agencies etc which we did but what a waste of time that was as well as stressful! We then contacted 3 other authorities in the area, one dismissed us straight away because we were out of the catchment area, we received info on another and then our neighbouring authority well, what can I say? They were unbelievable rude and negative. They made me feel as though what we were doing was the wrong choice and tried putting me off telling me that 4 year old children are hard work, I questioned him and asked who he thought he was saying things like this to prospective adopters and firmly assured him that I was doing the right thing for a child/children that needed a family and for us! I was absolutely gobsmacked to say the least! After I had emotionally calmed down I contacted our LA and registered our interest with them. We know we cant adopt with our LA because you cant adopt in the same area, but they have told us they will 'sell us' out to the other agencies and authorities across the country, which might make things difficult in some ways when we reach the matching period and the transitional stage where the child starts visits etc but it will all be worth it in the long run. We have our first meeting with our SW today, I hope you find an agency or authority that makes you feel at ease. You will know when you have met the right one because you will feel at home with them... Good Luck :)

It's a shame that sws appears to have been possibly a little too straight talking/blunt - because actually what he says is quite true. 4 year olds are hard work, as are all children in the care system regardless of age, certainly initially! You do have to find an agency you're comfortable with and who you feel will support you, but a straight talking sw is not necessarily a bad thing. Re the selling ..... That might not be as easy as your current sw is leading you to believe. There are lots of adopters approved and waiting. Fewer children. If agencies can find an in house match - quicker and cheaper - then they will prioritise their own adopters. I know of agencies where they have few adopters, more children - including babies. They still aren't looking for matches outside the area because of the cost. Hopefully the agency you've chosen is part of a consortium so this won't apply?

We chose a VA - had rung up a number of agencies - local LAs and the VA we chose so went on telephone discussions and the information they sent through. Some had requirements to do with age which ruled them out straight away. Our local LA in fact would have been willing to assess straight away for a child they had on their books but unfortunately she was older than we wanted. They didn't pressurise us in any way just asked if we would be interested. Also when they were able to start things off - most LAs offered an open evening several months ahead whereas the VA gave us an appointment straight away. I disagree about post adoption support - ours gives support up to 18 and are very responsive to emails with various queries.