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The important thing is to find an agency that you are comfortable with and want to work with you. When it comes to matching you with a child, there are lots of things taken into account. Security issues should be a consideration and you shouldn't be placed with a child where proximity to birth family would be a major issue. Depending on where you live you might have to avoid certain towns etc. But you should take all this into account when you are considering childrens profiles. If the birth family are too close for you to feel comfortable then you say no.

Hi Scotsgirl, you can apply with your LA, a neighbouring one of they're happy to take you on, or a VA which is what we did. There are lots of reasons for choosing, some of which Serrakunda notes in her response, additionally it can depend who needs adopters (some LAs will freeze if not enough children coming through), what you are looking for etc. LAs will try to place children with their own adopters which in theory means you are first choice but only if children of the appropriate age etc come through. With VAs there isn't a pool of children but the focus is on you and the ongoing support is supposed to be superb. Don't worry about proximity of children -if there are security concerns the LA will look to place in another agency/LA. Happy to PM if you'd like more info - the system in Scotland is different I.e. No stage 1/stage 2 etc so it can be confusing!

We went with our local Scottish LA. The authorities take where you live into account when get to the stage of placing a child with you. We tend to get the kids from the other end of the county and they get ours ! We found that there are fewer VA in Scotland , and were advised to use LA . Even though we did so, our first child ended up being from hundreds of miles away , we saw his profile in Be My Child magazine. The LA had no children they needed to place at the time of our approval so after a while they said to us we could look elsewhere . Second child came from within county but was placed well away from birth family.

We adopted with a VA in Scotland. I've been very happy with that decision. Post Adoption support is amazing, invitations to workshops, or to see speakers, it's easy to email or call for help, Workers attending school meetings with me, access to a library-more than i ever imagined. We adopted older children fron the other side of the country, but I know others have had very young children from much nearer. Our lovely social worker stayed with us from the beginning through and beyond placement. I think it's still prep group, then home study then approval panel here. We only ever considered a VA. We wanted somewhere which we knew would be good for PAS. If you are close enough, you should go and talk to your La, a neighbouring one, if you want! and a VA or two - get a feel about what would work best for you. Heaven x

Hi :) we live in between two towns and I phoned both LAs before we chose which one we were going with. The only thing they said was that the social workers have to be able to travel to us weekly so we went with the closest one (which is not actually the council our village falls under). They also said that it doesn't make much difference as it doesn't necessarily mean that the child placed with you comes from that town. Phone the LAs your considering and speak to them about your concerns then go from there. So far the Scottish system has been really good. Having the prep classes before the home study was really useful and gave us a lot to think about before our SW started visiting.

Thanks for all the comments. Torphinlass that would be great thanks. I'll pm u