# approval panel what type of questions do they ask?



## ellemay32 (Aug 23, 2012)

Hi we are just over 2 weeks away from approval panel and im wondering what type of questions will be asked? 
Did run this by the sw but she said we will be asked the "fluffier" questions, this means nothing to me lol.


Any help will be a bonus ta xxx


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## Macgyver (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi


It's a while ago since we were in your situation, but good luck I am sure you will be fine.


I can remembr they asked how we felt about adoption
What we could give an adopted child
How our experiences could help raising an adopted child
Would we tell the child they were adopted?
What support network we had
How we were going to take time off work for a year
What child care experience we had.


That was it. Panel was lovely they are really nice people.


Don't worry to much, relax and remember enjoy xx


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## Nicola30 (Jun 13, 2011)

Seems just like yesterday - for us it was as Macgyver has said, our panel was actually a really nice experience. Remember these people are on your side xxx

My husband was asked about his commitments to his Tennis club (he plays lots!) and how this would change with the arrival of a little one.
I was asked about how we would promote a healthy lifestyle for a child (we were on a major health kick)
And then we were jointly asked about the research we had undertaken - they were really impressed with our knowledge and our social worker bigged us up! 

Good luck and best wishes xxx


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## ellemay32 (Aug 23, 2012)

Thanks for the heads up girls! Trying not to over analyse things at the mo but feeling the situation is a little tense as i dont want it to go wrong eeeeeks. Xx


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## smudgerbabe (Sep 16, 2011)

Hi Ellemay - just be sure you are familiar with every comment in your PAR. Around 11 people asked me questions about things they had pulled out of every section of it. Also be clear about what you're going to say about birth parents (there was someone on my panel who had had a child removed when they were younger), contact etc etc. 

Fluffy questions generally means things that don't have a straight yes/no answer or has no right or wrong answer - i.e. how do you feel about.......

Oh just remembered they also asked about when the child became a teenager and were impressed that I had actually thought about this (good to be thinking long term).

Lastly - I don't know if they do this everywhere but before I went in I waited in a room and in it was a folder with pictures and information on the panel members in it. READ THIS!! 

Good luck!


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## Flash123 (Jan 29, 2006)

Smudger - amongst others we also had the teenager one! How we would deal with a teenager who was having difficulties accepting and internalising all things adoption related. 

TBH, most of the questions we were asked gave us the opportunity to 'shine'. They asked about things our SW had 'bigged up' so it was fine and actually nice to be quite confident about something for a change lol. 

Our experience of Ap was lovely. They were very kind and welcoming (Mp was utterly horrendous - buts that's another story!) 

Good luck xxx


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## Darcy2012 (Jul 16, 2014)

Hi
We were asked how we found the process, we have friends who adopted in our support network so were asked what had we taken from their experience and learnt from them. We were also asked whst were we most looking forward to about being a family. That was it I think, they were all lovely and welcoming. Our social worker sent us some info with their pictures and who they were beforehand which was great.

Good luck


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## Brummig (Jan 14, 2011)

They asked us if we'd thought about how we'd tell her she was adopted.  As we have a birth child who is 10 years older and has autism, and is an open book, we said we had to be honest from the start as our son will tell her.
They also asked us about why we had been attracted to her from the CPR. 
I think there was a question about how we felt about some medical uncertainties and that was it.  We weren't in there all that long.  
We had to wait ages in a very small hot room with no information about how late they were running.  They had left copies of the report in there, and her SW had brought a new photo.  The medical officer came to introduce herself to us which was nice, no-one else did.  The room panel was in was huge and it felt like it took forever to walk over to the table, and we were a long way away from them.


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## silverbird2 (Jun 3, 2011)

Hi Elle

Looks like we started the adoption process at the same time.  I had my Panel last week.

We were asked what we were most looking forward to and what challenges we thought we may face.  We were asked if anything had surprised us during our time volunteering with children.  I was also asked directly what I thought about my parents' physical abuse when I was a child and what I would do differently, as well as whether I had concerns they would use the same punishments on a child placed with us.  This had all been covered extensively in the PAR so our SW was surprised it got asked but she said it's probably because they didn't have anything else to ask and just asked for the sake of asking.  We also got asked how we found the adoption process.  We were only in there about 5 to 10 minutes and we got approved 

All the best x


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