Our target time for completing your assessment from the point of accepting your formal application is within six months.

Step 1

After making an initial enquiry, you will be invited to an open evening or offered a visit from a family placement worker. You will be given information to help you decide if adoption is right for you and your family.

Step 2

You will be asked to complete an expression of interest form and we will visit you to discuss this further. After this visit you will be told if you can proceed with the process.

We are interested in enquiries from all kinds of people, but nobody has an automatic right to adopt. We give priority to people who we think will be most suitable for the children waiting to be adopted.

Step 3

You will be invited to attend a preparation course. At the end of the course, application forms will be available if you wish to proceed. These courses are usually held 4 times a year.

Step 4

A family placement worker will be assigned to you. They will visit you to assess you and your family. They will visit you several times, and these visits will be made during office hours. We will take up references including:

• the police
• your employer
• two independent referees

Step 5

You will be asked to attend a medical with your own doctor. The medical adviser will then recommend if you should proceed, taking into account any conditions that could affect a child.

Step 6

If all checks and references are satisfactory, a report will be presented to the adoption panel. You may attend this meeting if you wish. The panel will then decide if you can become an adopter.

If you are not approved, you can ask us to reconsider our decision, or apply for an independent review of the decision.

Step 7

If you are approved your details will be placed on the National Adoption Register and on the Yorkshire Adoption Consortium register, unless you do not want this to happen.

The Consortium looks for matches across the region between approved adopters and children needing a placement. The National Adoption Register looks for national matches.

You will be given support at this time until a potential match is found. We will hold a review with you if a match has not been found after a year. This is to discuss how you are coping with the wait, any changes in your circumstances and your approval status. If you are waiting for more than an years, your references will need to be updated and your approval reviewed.

Step 8

If a possible match is found, information on prospective adopters and the child are exchanged. If you want to find out about the child, the child's social worker can visit you. This will be with your family placement worker and often also the child's foster carer. They will tell you about the child so that you can decide if you wish to still be considered. If you do, and the child's social worker thinks that you would be a good match, they will write a report for the panel. This report will say how you can meet the child's needs.

Step 9

If the match is approved you will be able to meet the child for the first time.

The introductory process is planned so that you can get to know the child and make sure that the match is right. Support at this time will be given by your family placement worker and the child's social worker. The length of this process depends on the child's age and needs.

Step 10

After the child comes to live with you we will review the placement until the adoption is made permanent. The first review is within 28 days, then 3 months, then every 6 months. We will look at how the child is settling into your family and how you are progressing towards an adoption application.

Until an adoption order is made, the child is still our responsibility. This means that the child cannot be cared for by your friends or relatives without our prior permission. Decisions regarding the child are still made by us, after consulting with you.

Step 11

When you are ready to make an application to the court for an adoption order, we will discuss this with you. Your family placement worker will help you decide if you are ready. The child's social worker and your family placement worker will write a report to support your application. You will then attend an adoption hearing, where an adoption order will be made.

Once an adoption order is made, you will have full legal rights and responsibilities to the child.