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Impacts of moving out of the area

Mongrel February 24, 2022 12:24

Hi All

My partner and I are considering moving out of London to a smaller town in another part of the country - possibly a place with easier access to the countryside / seaside and a strong community spirit. We have an adopted daughter aged 10, who came to us 3 years ago, and has settled in well at home and school. She does not have special needs, but has been having weekly therapy (on and off, due to covid) for nearly 2 years, and it is likely she will continue to need it into her teenage years. We are looking to move just before she would start secondary school.
I wanted to ask if anyone has done anything like this, and how it went, and also the implications of moving to another LA and CAMHS service. Can you simply transfer to a new CAMHS/mental health provision, or do you need to go through the whole assessment process again?
Will a move affect our adoption support payments, especially as we are still with the placing authority for another 2 years as the adoption order only went through a year ago.
Any advice on the impacts of a potential move would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Bluemetro February 24, 2022 19:39

I can only share our experience which involved moving to a different house in the same locality and he had recently moved to Secondary. He found the move difficult. We found it challenging both before and after. As we moved from renting to owning we were able to have a gap, so could take some of his things to put in his room before, visit before, take other things over so there were things in the kitchen. It took many months before he felt relaxed.

For him this was the first move he remembered though.

We were asked about moving areas, but for him it would have been too difficult and we were awaiting CAMHS assessment, knowing no one and difficulty of finding suitable school a distance away. However this may be different for others.

chestnuttree February 25, 2022 15:25

We have moved twice into a new LA, once right before secondary and once while in secondary. My daughters handled it fine, but they are quite adventurous by nature and we stayed in the same city.

The placing authority is responsible for post-adoption support for 3 years after placement, after that responsibility lies in the hands of your local LA. Local provision varies greatly depending on where you live, so you would have to speak with adopters who live in your new area. Ideally, you should have a transition meeting with the new LA once they start supporting you.

If you want to keep the same therapist, they might then need register with the new LA once the new LA provides your post-adoption support. That can be a long and bureaucratic process, so I would enquire about that asap. We have been with three different CAMHS localities and moving teams went smoothly for us. The ASF is independent of LAs, so thereoretically you should have the same access, but your LA will assess you once they are responsible for you and the willingness to apply based on those assessments can vary from LA to LA.

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