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Hi Our story... (apologies, it's long) My husband and I had our son placed with us in March. We were made aware of him last October and informed that he had a half sibling on the way who would be taken into care and possibly would come up for adoption - would we be interested? Yes we said, we originally wanted a sibling pair but our current house is too small for 2. His sister was born last November and taken into foster at a day old. Our son's SW went on maternity leave before we were matched with him, he had an agency SW for a few months who would tell us nothing about his sister as the assessments were still being carried out etc. Our son had a new SW in July when we were informed that his sister's placement order had been issued in May. We were due to move to a bigger house the end of July so we waited. The house move fell through , we continued with the process of second time adoption for the sister. We went to approval panel in September and were approved for second adoption - we had a new offer on the house. The second offer fell through in October. We continued with the process, we were reassured that the house would not be deciding factor on the placement. We met the foster carer and medical advisor, we had a linking meeting. At the linking meeting in October I complained about how long it seemed to be taking (her 1st birthday was only a few weeks away) Since then it's gone downhill. They found issues at the linking meeting. The house was too cold. Our son was climbing on the back of the sofa (what if the baby had been on the sofa???) It had taken a long time to get our paperwork in for our son (was sent and lost in July, resubmitted this month) We had another linking meeting where all this was discussed and dealt with (or so we thought) I had a phone call 4 weeks ago to say that in the minutes from a meeting or panel in March it was stated that SS would not place another child in our house due to the size. This was new information, we had been reassured all year that it wouldn't prevent placement. We had a meeting with our son's SW and her 'manager' to discuss our options to take back to the legal meeting. We suggested selling cheap and renting for a while. They decided to take the option of my husband and I sleeping downstairs to enable the children to have their own rooms. This was agreed by legal (BTW our SW hasn't been involved in any of this, hasn't been invited to meetings or informed of decisions/problems etc etc) We were told there was a meeting last Wed with senior management to decide whether to take it forward. We weren't informed this would be a final decision which apparently it was and there is no appeals process. They decided not to place her with us. The reasons they have given vary from the house - we could be in rented accommodation before xmas (or by now if we'd had known this would happen) The paperwork for our son taking too long, original ones got lost in the post, now in and being processed - hoping for a Jan date. To us being stressed - this has never been mentioned or brought up as a problem - also our stress from trying to keep the children together!! We feel there have been many errors on the part of SS and no attempt at keeping the siblings together, in fact, quite the opposite, I feel they have prevented it. Oh, and apparently they already have potential adopters "lined up" which they shouldn't as up until Wed we were the potential adopters. I know one will be the foster carer as she's always been open about wanting to adopt the sister if she can, but I also think she's been part of the meeting and decisions about placement which must be biased. Sorry its long, any advice/similar situations/legal advice please? Thank you