# "No children in the system" - SWer disagrees



## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

Just for info and encouragement, I know quite a few folk are being told there are no children in the system waiting to be adopted in their area.

We met with our SWer this week, starting the second time adoption process.  She said that it wasn't true from what she sees.

Personally I think LA SWers have the habit of stating things as absolutes when actually they're a very specific statement.... i.e. "there are no children," when actually they mean, "this LA doesn't have any children that meet your matching criteria ready for placement now..."

Good luck everyone.


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## pyjamas (Jun 24, 2011)

Thank You for this AoC. We are still waiting since being approved in July 2013. Our SW says there are no children in system. Have seen two profiles in last six months that we were interested in but both were waiting for placement orders and neither were granted. Our criteria is fairly wide - boy or girl up to age of four. Lots of enquiries made by us on Adoption Link but no luck. Have been to two Activity Days too, with no luck!


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## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

That's really hard, Pyjamas, I'm so sorry. It's the same thing again - SWer says no children, but that can't be the case or there would BE no activity days or any children on Adoption Link!

Have you or your SWer tried Cumbria? As of June this year they had over 70 children waiting, with 58 of them under 5. http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/adoption/baby/default.asp I know the position will be different now, but it can't hurt to make contact?

Good luck, love.

/links


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## becs40 (Apr 9, 2013)

I think you're absolutely right AOC that it's their own situation they're referring to although that's not to say there aren't a lot of authorities in similar situations. Our la seems not to have too much of an issue at the moment but that's because they're a very small authority but do have quite a high number of children in care in comparison to population area. The children they have also tend to be very very young and they had gone through a phase where their adopters were looking for older children but it seems to have balanced itself now.
I would imagine also although just guessing at this that a la doesn't put children on the national register unless they're unable to match in house or need to place out of area? This being the case the easier to place children would almost certainly be placed in house.


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