# Local Authority v. private agency??



## Hippy (Aug 2, 2005)

Hi all you lovely ladies on here  Apologies if this question has already been asked at some point on this thread, but wondered if any of you can tell me the main differences and reasons for choosing to adopt via local authorities (LA) of private adoption agencies?

Can anyone answer the following??

1.Do you all have to start out with the assessment stage being done by your LA but then choose if LA or private agency do the matching part?? I am very confused as to how it all works!

2. If you do all the adoption process with your LA are they more pressurising on you to take on the older children/disabilities/sibling groups etc than private agencies? 

3. Have any of you been with LA and still managed to adopt children under 4 yrs, or have those of you with your very tiny ones (which is most of you  ) only managed this because you went via the private agencies or were these tiny ones not UK adoptions or did the child have disabilities/special needs?

4.Do you have to pay fees for any part of the adoption process? I am imaging with your LA there aren't any costs, but if you go private there are. What sort of costs are involved and for what?

Sorry to throw so many questions at you all (!) but any info on the above would be soooooo helpful   Just really need to know why people choose a private agency over LA and what the considerations and benefits between both are.

Big Hugs

Hippy
xxxxxxx


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## sanita (Oct 27, 2005)

Hi Hippy, we chose a private agency over a LA for several reasons.  Firstly, Dh and I are very organised people and we knew it would drive us mad if we had a SW who didn't return calls, cancelled meetings regularly etc.  LA SWs have much more on their plates than just assessing prospective adopters whereas VA SWs can concentrate on the job in hand.

Secondly as we are a bit older we knew we would be unlikely to get a baby even if we did use a LA.  The LA's tend to place their children with their approved adopters where ever possible as if they place their children with adopters who have been approved via a VA, the LA have to pay the VA a lot of money.  It tends to mean that easier to place children, ie babies and toddlers, tend to go to people approved by an LA and older, more difficult to place children tend to go to people approved by a VA. 

That last statement is a huge generalisation and obviously there are many exceptions to that rule.  

Another advantage of using a VA, is that once approved, you can go straight onto the adoption register and look around nationally at available children in publications like Children Who Wait and Be My Parent , but LAs try to keep you for themselves as long as possible.  That means if the LA don't have children waiting that are right for you, you may have to wait for new children coming into the system.

Sounds awfully complicated I know and there are pluses and minuses whatever way you do it.  This is just my reasons for choosing a VA.


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## magenta (Nov 2, 2004)

We went with a Voluntary Organisation.  there were multiple reasons.

1.  our LA isn't approving parents for children under 5
2. the other two main private/voluntary agencies weren't 'recruiting' but would put us on a list for an 'info night' in 3/4 monthd time.  one was shockingly blase/rude with us about sending info etc.
3.  our agency sent a nice pack explaining about the kinds of children needing homes and the kinds of children they usually place and then offered a meeting with a sw within a week.  We had to wait 6months for a prep course place cos they can only afford to run 4 a year.  they are the smallest of the agencies and are linked to the RC church although they accept parents of all faiths or none.  

they do the whole thing - initial meeting; prep course, home study; panel and then linking and matching.  our agency also offers very good post-adoption support (training; helplines; access to therapies etc)

Our agency rarely places children under 2 (there are soo few and most go to the biggest agency's couples) and most children are 2-6years old with siblings.  Many have disabilities/health uncertainties as well as attachment issues and issues due to their past care.  this is why they are not placed with LA approved families.  Our agency will not approve you for age range of less then 0-36months whatever your age but they tend to match within about 2years absolute max as far as I have heard.

We have been blessed with a little girl aged 19months who was placed via our LA (papers were sent to all the private agencies but only ours responded to say ..we think we may have someone) So...all in all ...very blessed.  And I think our agency looks pretty good out of it too and have boosted their name with at least three sw's. 

Hope this helps.

magenta xx


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## thespouses (Jan 5, 2006)

We are going with a private agency for similar reasons to Magenta (it may even be a branch of the same one, I don't know).  I have also heard that LAs place the youngest children in-county but there was no way we were going with ours.  

They also seem to be very clued up about what to ask from placing LAs and how to know when they are not telling you something.  This seems to be so important in choosing which children might be the right ones for you, and I know there are people who have been burned over this either through having a link fall through or even having children come to them with undisclosed things in their background.


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## cindyp (Apr 7, 2003)

Hi Hippy

I'm afraid I know nothing about VA's.  We just automatically approached the LA's (we are on the county border so there were two).  An LA will try and see if you are willing to take on more difficult cases such as siblings/disabled etc but in my experience they do realise that not everybody wants to do that.  As you can see from my bio we adopted a boy under 2 but whether we were just lucky I can't really say.  Quite a few people on this thread have adopted children under 2 but I'm not exactly certain on how many of us went with our LA.  

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Cindy


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## Hippy (Aug 2, 2005)

THANK YOU all so much for all your info - it was a huge help   There is so much to consider but your really balanced views have given Dh and I  loads of constructive food for thought.

Final query still unanswered was are there any fees required from you during the adoption process whether with an LA or VA? If anyone can answer this last query that would be fab.

Big hugs

Hippy
xxxx


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## saphy75 (Mar 15, 2004)

Hi

i too automatically went with our LA and found them to be fantastic through the whole process, i can't sing my sw praises highly enough (although the waiting did seem endless). she never tried to push us into anything and in the end matched us with a perfect 3 month old baby boy. i know we were very lucky as we were told there are no babies but our adoption ended up being very straight forward with no objections from the bf

pam xx

P.s you were posting at the same time as me so in answer to your question, the only fees we had to pay were for our medicals (which my dr did for free) Dh dr charged £50 everything else ha either been paid for or we have paid and been reinbursed. hope this helps


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## sanita (Oct 27, 2005)

Hi Hippy, 

As I said we are with a VA and all we have had to pay for is our medicals.  DH and I both had to pay our GP (not as generous as Pams Dr) and the fee was £75 each.


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## missy london (Dec 28, 2004)

Hi!
Im new to these boards having been on other boards when I was trying to conceive. I am nearing the end of the 6 month wait since stopping treatment and at 40, have been ttc for 12 years ! long enough to finally have decided to pursue adoption.
Please can you advise me how you find a "VA" ( voluntary authority ") It is such a new and confusing area and altho I have looked at LA's - I too, dont want to waste time. 
I am pleased that so many of you have gone thru successful adoption and would be grateful for any clues/advice you can give.

Love Missy XXXX


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## sanita (Oct 27, 2005)

Missy, Have a look at the BAAF website. www.baaf.org.uk. There is tons of info on there, especially as this is National Adoption Week. Good luck.

This post contains an unconfirmed link/information and readers are reminded that FertilityFriends.co.UK or its owners are not responsible for the content of external internet sites


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## Viva (May 16, 2005)

Hi, 
I posted a long message a couple of days ago and then managed to lose the lot! DH and I debated this one quite considerable as we were advised not to go with our LA as DH teaches within the same authority and this would complicate things!

We ended up approaching a number of agencies both LA's and Voluntary agencies around our area (most LA's will consider you if you live within 30 minutes to an hours travel. We essentially 'shopped around' for one we felt comfortable with, could get us started in a reasonable timeframe and seemed organised. We're only just getting started but we are very happy so far with the choice we have made. 

In the end we went with a LA because of the increased chance of getting placed with younger children (indeed our LA has recently placed a number of younger than average children, but who knows if this trend will continue). Voluntary agencies on the whole tend to place older children, larger sibling groups or children with more complex needs, this of course is a generalisation!

You will have to wait slightly longer to get placed on the national adoption register and from the information meetings we went to and information sent the voluntary agencies seem to offer more structured post adoption support. 

There are for's and aganinst's with both, but my advice would be to 'shop around' of course depending on where you live in the country you may not have as many options.

Hope this helps a little.

Viva

P.S. Quite a few of the LA's we approached who we were near to were keen on us because we were out of area, as some children cannot be matched in area! We have been very flexible about travelling to see our SW though so that has also helped!


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## saphy75 (Mar 15, 2004)

just wanted to add, some LA's will put you straight on the adoption register ours did  so just need to ask lots of questions before deciding who to go with (VA v LA)

pam xx


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## thespouses (Jan 5, 2006)

Just wanted to say our VA gets children from the same consortium that has several LAs in it so I'm not sure the pool of children would actually be that different if we were in one of those LAs - it's just that OUR LA is not in it - and we wouldn't really want that.


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