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Hi, congratulations on being approved.

Given the disruption caused by Covid, I think its still quite soon to be worried about getting matched. If there are no likely matches for you, your LA should however be allowing you to look at linkmaker.

You can't change your LA now without redoing at least part of the process again.

I'm a transracial adopter, as far as I'm aware there is still a shortage of Black and ethnic minority adopters. Our LA is using our story for a magazine article to encourage more BAME adopters so I assume you would be in demand here. You need to be looking in the right places though.

good luck

Hi Serrakunda27

Thanks for your response and congratulations. I guess it probably is a bit soon to worry at this stage and do not want to dismiss the fact that there are some adopters that have waited a longer time. It's just we were given such high hopes that it would all be really quick from the start that we had highs expectation. At the same time we do not want a rushed process, it's all about the right match of course.

We thought that it may be the case to retrain a part of the course so thanks for confirming.

I agree and statistically this is what is being presented with regards to the requirement of BAME adopters but there seems to be very few transracial children within our L.A. We are on Linkmaker and there have been several proposals but just not right for us. We have since had a couple of options so fingers crossed!

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congratulations and good luck i havent had any experience of the rest but i agree if you change then you would have to do part of the process again

Some LA's do like to keep it all in-house but this isn't always practical, we live very central to a small town, it certainly was not practical for us to adopt from within the area.

If you haven't got Linkmaker, I would insist on having access straight away. There are lots of children on there; where they are specifically trying to match similar ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Good Luck.

we have been in matching process for 3 months we have been going through the process for 2 years nearly stage 2 being the longest for us all so i agree with all that has been said at the previous comments my moto now is how long is your piece of string is how long your process is I didnt want to adopt in the area so we went with an agency out of the area. We have used linkmaker and we have a few children that we are interested in at the moment with our age range but the one we have had more luck with is our family finder found this one through profiles that she sent us, you either have luck with Linkmaker or you dont. Its strange times with Covid so iwould stick with your agency you have now as like someone said you will have to redo some of your process again which will make your process longer congratulations and good luck with your process

Thanks all. Appreciate your feedback.

What do you mean by London isnt covered? Once you are legally approved you should be able to adopt from anywhere in England. I can't see what profiles are available but I know there were quite a few mixed race children being shown to us and ones we spotted for ourselves here on linkmaker. The BAME day was the best, we got given little ones profile there, there seem to be more mixed race children further up north (not sure where you are from). I would just say keep looking and im sure profiles will be sent to you as well as you finding them. Maybe see if there are any meetings happening (online obvs) about BAME children. Our little ones profile that we go given on the day had not even made it to link maker yet, so we were ahead of it and so glad we decided to go. Just wondering who gave you the high hopes of it being quick? nothing in this long old process it quick lol I found the waiting very frustrating! The timings do vary on matching, ive known people have a child waiting for them as soon as they have passed panel and then I know someone who it took 18 months from panel to child moving in. Angleface is correct how long is a piece of string! Good luck, you have come this far which is awesome. Keep going, they will come.

Hi GK1309

We are with a Kent LA and they do not cover London as this is covered by Coram and other LAs apparently. These are their words not ours.

Due to the amounts black/dual heritage children waiting to be adopted we were told from training to present day that we would be in demand by our LA and that things would move quickly. We were not actually under this impression ourselves but it was said so much that it eventually changed our expectations.

Anyway, Linkmaker has certainly been our 'go to' and as mentioned we now have a few options so working on patience and embracing the excitement that our future has in stall. We know that the right child is out there for us.

Was simply putting it out there to see if anyone else had the same kind of experience.

We are a mixed (Asian / white) couple and it was very quick for us - in fact when we rung our LA initially we were told about a child. We decided to go with a VA and identified a child in Be My Parent around the time of starting our assessment (part 2?) - the two things went along side by side. There was definitely a shortage of adopters at that time - I had rung up about a baby I had seen even earlier in the process and had been told there would be many more like him when we were ready. Like Serrakunda I have provided information to someone working to promote adoption amongst the Asian community fairly recently so I think the situation is very much the same now. Glad to hear you now have children you are considering and even in the present situation children are being moved on although it must require a lot of planning. Good luck with it all - I’m sure it won’t be too long.

By the way I thought parts of Kent were considered outer London too?

Hi Safia

Thanks for sharing your experience, it's seems like things moved really quickly for you. The process is so up and down and it's nice to be able to speak honestly about our situation with others that understand.

There is a great need to promote adoption in minority communities and it's a great thing you are doing.

There are certain parts considered as oartvofvtge commuter belt for London but, we are a bit further a field.

Good luck with it all.

Hi we are in the same area, the LAs in Kent, Medway and London borough of Bexley have joined together in a regional adoption consortium, but this was around March and then lockdown so this may slow down the process of them joining up. We are not from BAME background but I think also we were led to believe when we were approved potential matches would be suggested by our LA, and our SW did suggest one potential match, but this wasn’t quite right so then we went on linkmaker. I don’t think that you need to change LA as you can be matched with children from all areas on linkmaker, we are in discussions about a child from Adopt London South (Adopt London is made of four regional adoption agencies covering 23 London local authorities). A couple from a multiracial (black other) background from our prep group was matched quite quickly through linkmaker one month after approval, with a child from the north of the country, and said they had a lot of interest showed in them. The timescales for how long it takes to find a match is different for everyone as we all have different considerations and experiences, and the children’s needs.

Good luck and hope you find your match soon

Hiya, we just got approved late August and during assessment we were given a child profile that we liked, we expressed interest but nothing happened. After approval, the Child was presented again by our family finder and we expressed interest again but still no response. Checking in with our family finder, I asked why the silence as opposed to a yes or a no and she said that this is typical as it can sometimes take up to 7 weeks for a child's SW to repond. Has this been the case for others? Has anyone experienced it taking that long to get a child's permenance record?

I think it depends what stage the planning is at with the child and the court order. I’d ask your family finder for an update. Our SW spoke to us about a child when we were approved in June, we are still waiting to hear more ! This is due to a range of factors around court dates, the FC and appeals, and our SW has been keeping us updated but it’s not at a stage where they can say yes or no. On linkmaker when we’ve expressed interest in a child the SW replies within a few days.

Thanks @ines that's very helpful.