Stage Two of the adoption process

Stage Two of the adoption process begins when you return your wish to proceed form to ARC Adoption. 

This stage must be completed within four months after the receipt of the wish to proceed form and involves intensive training and a home study assessment. Your allocated assessing adoption social worker will draw up a Stage Two Plan around the assessment to ensure the visits take place at a time to suit you and you are fully prepared for each session. They will then arrange a date and time that is convenient for you to visit you in your home and complete the assessment report.

Our Stage Two intensive training course is held over one weekend at ARC Adoption’s office, whilst you are in Stage Two. 

The assessment work undertaken during this part of the process is documented on a Prospective Adopters Report (PAR) written by your adoption social worker.

The content of the PAR will reflect the discussions on the subjects listed below along with an analysis by your assessing adoption social worker.

• Applicants Details
• Matching Considerations
• Verification of Identity, Career History, Outcome of Agency Enquiries – taken at Stage one
• Health Issues
• Personal References- taken at Stage one
• Applicants background, education, employment, hobbies/interests
• Relationships past and present and the stability of any current relationship
• Support Networks and family trees
• If applicable, children in the household
• If applicable, other adults in the household
• Childlessness/Limitation of family size/Motivation to adopt
• Accommodation/Community
• Lifestyle
• Valuing Diversity
• Parenting Capacity
• Financial Considerations
• Placement Considerations
• Post Adoption Support Requirements

You will be asked to contribute to certain parts of the assessment document yourselves and be fully involved in preparing all aspects of the report.

If you have a previous partner, and there were children in that relationship, then the former partner will need to be contacted unless doing so would be detrimental to you, the children or any adopted child.

When all of the planned visits have been completed the final report (PAR) is compiled by the assessing adoption social worker. You will be provided with a copy of the PAR and given up to five working days to consider it and make any comments.

At this point you will be contacted by a senior manager who will arrange to visit you to discuss your experience with ARC Adoption North East and to explain the panel process. We call this a quality assurance visit and it helps us to continually improve the service we offer to prospective adopters.

Once you have indicated that you are happy with the report and have forwarded any comments, or the five working days to consider the report are up, the assessment report will then be presented to ARC Adoption's adoption panel.

An assessment of your potential post-adoption support needs is also conducted and included in the Prospective Adopters’ Report.

Following completion of your PAR or home study assessment, the next stage will be to present your case to ARC's Adoption panel.

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If you would like to enquire about adoption and the adoption process please call 0191 516 6466 or submit an enquiry form and a member of the ARC Adoption team will contact you as soon as possible.