# How much time off work?



## becs40 (Apr 9, 2013)

I know it's probably a how long is a piece of string question but trying to get an idea of how much time away from work we'll need going through the adoption process? I only work tues-fri at the mo so I'm hoping that we can get some of the things done on Mondays but I guess this will depend on sw.
We're going to an open evening with la next month and will be looking to formally apply after that. My annual leave doesn't start until May and I only have 2 days left until then having used most of it for ivf treatment last year so need to try and see what time we will need.


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## sass30 (Apr 16, 2011)

Hi becs40

We needed 3 full days off work for prep group amd we had 7 meetings which were 3 hours long and i took those as full days off as well. Your SW will be accomodating to you of you have work commitments. Hope this helps and good luck.


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## babas (Oct 23, 2013)

So far I have had 3 full days for prep and one half day that's only stage one. Had my medical after work hours.


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## becs40 (Apr 9, 2013)

Thank you that's really helpful.


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## Smudgey (Mar 13, 2012)

Hi  , I had 4 days off for prep group , but have had mornings / afternoons off for home study that work have allowed me to take without holidays as we have a great package and if you were a pregnant lady you would be entitled to time of for antenatal appointments . I took a day off for panel only because me and hubby wanted to go out for lunch to celebrate after .


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## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

Hi - we had four full days for prep course (three together and then one later) and around 10 meetings at home, ranging from three hour chatting sessions to half hour quick document checks.  Some of those were during the day, and we took half days off work, but we had some evening sessions, too.  This was over 9 months.  Good luck!


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## dandlebean (Feb 24, 2013)

We too had 4 full days off for prep. I only work Tues, Weds, Thurs, so I was pretty confident of being able to avoid taking holidays - but the SW assigned to us was also part-time and didn't work Monday and Fridays, so I ended up having to take around half of my annual leave for HS. It would have been more, but our SW did offer to come on a few evenings as well (though I often work late/long shifts, so still had to take a few hours here and there). 

If you have a particular day, it may be worth mentioning to your agency that you'd be aiming to have appointments on that day, so they can make sure you get a SW that works that day   I would say I wish I'd done that, but I love my SW so I'm glad I didn't too


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## Daddyboo (Paul) (Dec 24, 2012)

We suggested that as Birth Mothers get time off work for scans and other appointments then we should also be allowed time off for our appointments, on the understanding that we tried to do the majority outside work hours.

We did 3 days of training in the January and then a final day in April - with full pay.

Then Home Study lasted 6-8 sessions mainly in the evening or late afternoon) and the last few on the weekends, again all paid time off.  Although I work 7am-4pm so I wasn't using too many hours.

Perhaps your workplace has similar policies - it's worth asking HR?


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## becs40 (Apr 9, 2013)

Thank you all so much for the response it's really helped. 
Dandlebean, that's a really good suggestion and something I shall bring up at the open evening re scheduling as many appts for a Monday as possible.
Paul, I had a look at the 3 paragraphs on works adoption policy re the 5 pages of maternity! It's really outrageous that 2 employees becoming parents but through different methods can be treated so differently. I shall have a chat with HR though and see if they can be flexible with appts if necessary. My direct manager is very good and will help where she can, I will also have a chat with her to see if I can swap my non working day around if necessary - to be honest probably more in their favour anyway as Monday is the busiest day!


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## Brummig (Jan 14, 2011)

Its great to hear that some people had some really positive experiences of sw's and employers being willing to be flexible. Sadly ours was not as good.  DH only works every other Friday, but our SW didn't work Fridays and his work didn't want him to keep swapping non working days.  Our adoption team manager did not want sw to schedule appts before 10 or after 2.30 (their family friendly policy).  At the time DH worked nearly an hour away from home so an appt starting at 10, lasting 3 hrs would have meant not really any point him going in at all! Our sw was more accommodating - she lives near us and so was happy to come straight to us at the start of her working day, and sometimes this happened to be nearer 8.30 than 9.  
In addition to 4 days for prep course, I think 8 home study (2-3 hours), briefing meeting for panel, day for matching panel, we then had 2 meetings with LO sw and family finding sw, they came from 2 hrs away and wanted to visit our home (1st sw went off sick day after visit and never wrote up notes, so her manager wanted to come and see for herself), 1 day meeting foster carer, 1 day meeting medical advisor (lots of possible issues in PAR we wanted to clarify, 1 day Life Appreciation Day (total farce!!!), then panel.  I had several other meetings with sw on my own but our matching process had a few gliches (changes in staff mainly).  I'm not trying to out you off, but just to say some aren't as accommodating!


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## dandlebean (Feb 24, 2013)

Ugh, Brummig, sounds like a nightmare for you! 

We also had LO's SW/FF cancel an appointment last minute, and we'd taken the whole day off to clean and stuff in the morning, which meant a day's wasted holiday. Our latest visitors were coming from far away, so we had no idea what time they were arriving and so took a full day's holiday again. 

I think it's a good idea to chat to HR, as others have suggested. My workplace only allows 3 hours appointment time per year, but they've been good about letting me having the time off as holiday even when holiday wasn't technically available. We used every scrap of annual leave last year for HS and are likely to need most of it for linking/matching/exchange days and stuff this year too. I just hope DH can save enough leave to have plenty of time off when we finally get LO home!


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## lynsbee (Jun 21, 2013)

I only needed to sort 2 days off for prep as the other 2 were on Saturdays. At the time of assessment I had every other Thurs off so our SW came on a Thursday and the weeks I was working on a Thurs she came in the evening to us instead.


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## thespouses (Jan 5, 2006)

We had 4 days of prep I think but one was a Saturday too.

For our 2nd time HS we think we'll have 2 full days with our previous SW but that's the only way she can do it - however it suits us too as hubby works a distance away again and even a 4pm appointment or a 9am appointment means half a day off for him.


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