National Adoption Week - Too old at 4? - That was the theme this year, and if you know me you will know that we, as a family do not believe in this. All 3 of our children were above the age of 7 years old when they were placed for adoption with us.
I started the week full of panic with so much on, the 5 of us due to appear on ITV's Good Morning Britain on Monday morning. It filled me with dread, trying to get the 5 of us into ITV's London Studios by 4:30am.... I was a little disappointed when I was told that it had been cancelled in favour of Jamie Baulch's appearance. My first ickle moan about my week.... What, exactly, is the relevance of Jamie Baulch (no offence to him, his families or anyone else in the same position!) to the theme "Too old at 4?" when he was adopted as a baby and is now in his early 40's? I admire all adoptees and adopters, regardless of whether they are personal friends or not, but this to me just seemed irrelevant to the topic of #NAW2015
So Monday started ok... We did not have to get up at midnight for a start... I started thinking, "Oh, I must wish everyone a Happy NAW" and then I saw my Facebook timeline was filled with a mixed bag of comments about the week and adoption. This is the issue of having friends as adopters, your good week could be their worst ever week, with lots going on for them and their children, and often it seems inappropriate to harp on about successes, so I mixed it up a little....
With over 100 likes, and lots of comments I was rather chuffed with my statement, and backing it up!
From Tuesday I was away from home for the rest of the week, a real first for my Hubby and the boys, I have never been away from home for that long with work before, and I was looking forward to it, as it was all to do with a job that I enjoy immensely.
First stop: Department for Education (DfE) in London. I had been asked to bring some Adopters together as a compliment to a huge project at work called #AdopterVoice. Adopter Voice is a DfE funded inititave that we at Adoption UK have been working on since winning the bid in April this year. There are two elements:
1) Online Forums - The website has been updated so that registered users can log on, ask questions of their specific Local Authority, answer questions posed by others, and contribute to the future of adoption services locally, regionally and nationally.
2) Face to Face forums - 10 Local Authorities have been selected to work with us to provide face to face forums doing similar work to the online forums and contributing to the future of adoption services.
For more details: www.adoptionuk.org.uk/welcome
I was delighted to be joined at the DfE with some of my own team at Adoption UK, Anita and Helen, as well as Sara, Michael, Caroline and Avril - Adopter Champions who, as well as being adopters and leading busy lives, have agreed to be our volunteer Adopter Champions running the forums in three of the pilot areas. Also with us were the famous (or infamous) Expert Advisory Group members, Al Coates and Sally Donovan. Sadly the other "champion" Jenny Jones could not make it on this occasion.
We will be attending these meetings every three months at the DfE offices and we will be contributing to the different themes to do with shaping the future for Adoption support, an area that the current government and the DfE are investing time and money into. We won't solve all of the issues overnight, however, as users of the services, and our contact with the adoption community, both personally and professionally, we can have a good go at trying to make a start on this for our children.
It was lovely to meet Ed Timpson and it was clear he had a passion for Adoption. I wonder if I should have told him in a previous life I was a Timpson's employee? I refrained... Although he did comment that Caroline had the same watch as him, albeit his was green and hers was pink! Adoption UK and Adoption Expert Advisory Group (EAG) Chair Hugh Thornbery also made an appearance and discussed the importance of the Adopter Voice within the EAG, which Sally, Al and Jenny will take back for us.
If you are reading this and thinking, what can they change... well, quite a lot actually, maybe not straught away, but I have always found there are generally themese that run through adoption, education, mental health etc, when that is the case, if enough voices are saying the same thing then it would be a bit daft if they were all ignored. So, I implore you, if you are having issues with something that you think others do, or would like to see something changed, use the Adopter Voice project to do this. If it is something that you would prefer not to be identified from OR you would like someone to do it on your behalf through good old fashioned talking, then tweet me @GayAdoptionDad
Tuesday night I was delighted to be invited to First4Adoption's National Adoption Week awards. I was in awe of the Foundling Museum, as well as the number of Adopters and Adoption professionals present, and to see the winners announced by Adoptive parent and actress Claire Grogan was delightful. Lesley Sharpe (an adoptee as well as actress) was also there to hand out the award for Champion of the Year, well deserved Ben.
I was delighted to see my own Local Authority - Coram Cambridgeshire, win an award. Al Coates also won Blog of the Year - I was delighted for them all. For the full list of winners please click here
Wednesday was partly spent having a lay in and, ahem, recovering from some sparkling "water" the night before, then a trip to Dorset. Again, this was with work, and I had been invited by Adoption UK Volunteers' Cathy and Shaun to come along and talk at the voluntary Support Group they run on behalf of Adoption UK. Myself and Regional Manager "J" - another one of my splendidly committed team - spent the evening talking to our members, and talking them all through the Adopter Voice project. I would just like to say that there were a number of adopters there with some really big things going on in their lives... I said it then and I will say it again, they had two things in common, their children and HUMOUR! Yes, often behind the scenes we can get down, sometimes very down, as adopters, but each and everyone of the people who came along laughed - and more than once! A true testament to the kinds of people that go through so much and yet can still smile! Thank you for inviting us and having us - the cakes were fab!
Thursday was my usual day in Banbury where AUK's HQ is based. Such a fabulous bunch of colleagues, who work tirelessly day in and day out to ensure the services we provide are accessible, and sadly we said goodbye to one of those, Graham on Thursday evening. Great news for Graham, as he has the opportunity to work for a charitable foundation in a London hospital.... where their fundraising team do such an amazing job.... he will fit in well.
Friday.... I could have laid in that Premier Inn bed all day..... (I am normally Holiday Inn/Crowne Plaza but did not want to drive last night!) but needs must and up and out I went, from Banbury to Lincoln.... for my LAST meeting of the week! The lovely ladies in Lincolnshire County Council, myself and Victoria our Adopter Champion for Lincolnshire had our kick off meeting for AV in Lincolnshire.
So why such a long blog after nothing for so long? You know, Adoption is a huge commitment, and I realised this week just how big it can be... Juggling the family, National Adoption week with a full time job, Air Cadets, as well as sleeping and eating.... My life is 95% adoption, without adding in sleep - and I probably dream about adoption then too. I just wanted to publicly say to EACH and EVERY adoptive parent out there.... If I had the opportunity and the money I would award each of you with something you need to make your life better. Every adoptive parent does such an amazing job each and every day, dealing with the trauma of children who have effectively been damaged in their earlier years, some with it continuing in their time in care.
National Adoption Week should cover a lot of things, but I think the days of Adopter recruitment have passed, now it is about the children who we struggle to find families for, because of their age, medical conditions, disabilities etc.
Too old at 4? Pft... No chance... keep them coming!
Happy National Adoption week to ALL adoptive parents and their families.
I started the week full of panic with so much on, the 5 of us due to appear on ITV's Good Morning Britain on Monday morning. It filled me with dread, trying to get the 5 of us into ITV's London Studios by 4:30am.... I was a little disappointed when I was told that it had been cancelled in favour of Jamie Baulch's appearance. My first ickle moan about my week.... What, exactly, is the relevance of Jamie Baulch (no offence to him, his families or anyone else in the same position!) to the theme "Too old at 4?" when he was adopted as a baby and is now in his early 40's? I admire all adoptees and adopters, regardless of whether they are personal friends or not, but this to me just seemed irrelevant to the topic of #NAW2015
So Monday started ok... We did not have to get up at midnight for a start... I started thinking, "Oh, I must wish everyone a Happy NAW" and then I saw my Facebook timeline was filled with a mixed bag of comments about the week and adoption. This is the issue of having friends as adopters, your good week could be their worst ever week, with lots going on for them and their children, and often it seems inappropriate to harp on about successes, so I mixed it up a little....
With over 100 likes, and lots of comments I was rather chuffed with my statement, and backing it up!
From Tuesday I was away from home for the rest of the week, a real first for my Hubby and the boys, I have never been away from home for that long with work before, and I was looking forward to it, as it was all to do with a job that I enjoy immensely.
First stop: Department for Education (DfE) in London. I had been asked to bring some Adopters together as a compliment to a huge project at work called #AdopterVoice. Adopter Voice is a DfE funded inititave that we at Adoption UK have been working on since winning the bid in April this year. There are two elements:
1) Online Forums - The website has been updated so that registered users can log on, ask questions of their specific Local Authority, answer questions posed by others, and contribute to the future of adoption services locally, regionally and nationally.
2) Face to Face forums - 10 Local Authorities have been selected to work with us to provide face to face forums doing similar work to the online forums and contributing to the future of adoption services.
For more details: www.adoptionuk.org.uk/welcome
I was delighted to be joined at the DfE with some of my own team at Adoption UK, Anita and Helen, as well as Sara, Michael, Caroline and Avril - Adopter Champions who, as well as being adopters and leading busy lives, have agreed to be our volunteer Adopter Champions running the forums in three of the pilot areas. Also with us were the famous (or infamous) Expert Advisory Group members, Al Coates and Sally Donovan. Sadly the other "champion" Jenny Jones could not make it on this occasion.
We will be attending these meetings every three months at the DfE offices and we will be contributing to the different themes to do with shaping the future for Adoption support, an area that the current government and the DfE are investing time and money into. We won't solve all of the issues overnight, however, as users of the services, and our contact with the adoption community, both personally and professionally, we can have a good go at trying to make a start on this for our children.
It was lovely to meet Ed Timpson and it was clear he had a passion for Adoption. I wonder if I should have told him in a previous life I was a Timpson's employee? I refrained... Although he did comment that Caroline had the same watch as him, albeit his was green and hers was pink! Adoption UK and Adoption Expert Advisory Group (EAG) Chair Hugh Thornbery also made an appearance and discussed the importance of the Adopter Voice within the EAG, which Sally, Al and Jenny will take back for us.
If you are reading this and thinking, what can they change... well, quite a lot actually, maybe not straught away, but I have always found there are generally themese that run through adoption, education, mental health etc, when that is the case, if enough voices are saying the same thing then it would be a bit daft if they were all ignored. So, I implore you, if you are having issues with something that you think others do, or would like to see something changed, use the Adopter Voice project to do this. If it is something that you would prefer not to be identified from OR you would like someone to do it on your behalf through good old fashioned talking, then tweet me @GayAdoptionDad
Tuesday night I was delighted to be invited to First4Adoption's National Adoption Week awards. I was in awe of the Foundling Museum, as well as the number of Adopters and Adoption professionals present, and to see the winners announced by Adoptive parent and actress Claire Grogan was delightful. Lesley Sharpe (an adoptee as well as actress) was also there to hand out the award for Champion of the Year, well deserved Ben.
I was delighted to see my own Local Authority - Coram Cambridgeshire, win an award. Al Coates also won Blog of the Year - I was delighted for them all. For the full list of winners please click here
Wednesday was partly spent having a lay in and, ahem, recovering from some sparkling "water" the night before, then a trip to Dorset. Again, this was with work, and I had been invited by Adoption UK Volunteers' Cathy and Shaun to come along and talk at the voluntary Support Group they run on behalf of Adoption UK. Myself and Regional Manager "J" - another one of my splendidly committed team - spent the evening talking to our members, and talking them all through the Adopter Voice project. I would just like to say that there were a number of adopters there with some really big things going on in their lives... I said it then and I will say it again, they had two things in common, their children and HUMOUR! Yes, often behind the scenes we can get down, sometimes very down, as adopters, but each and everyone of the people who came along laughed - and more than once! A true testament to the kinds of people that go through so much and yet can still smile! Thank you for inviting us and having us - the cakes were fab!
Thursday was my usual day in Banbury where AUK's HQ is based. Such a fabulous bunch of colleagues, who work tirelessly day in and day out to ensure the services we provide are accessible, and sadly we said goodbye to one of those, Graham on Thursday evening. Great news for Graham, as he has the opportunity to work for a charitable foundation in a London hospital.... where their fundraising team do such an amazing job.... he will fit in well.
Friday.... I could have laid in that Premier Inn bed all day..... (I am normally Holiday Inn/Crowne Plaza but did not want to drive last night!) but needs must and up and out I went, from Banbury to Lincoln.... for my LAST meeting of the week! The lovely ladies in Lincolnshire County Council, myself and Victoria our Adopter Champion for Lincolnshire had our kick off meeting for AV in Lincolnshire.
So why such a long blog after nothing for so long? You know, Adoption is a huge commitment, and I realised this week just how big it can be... Juggling the family, National Adoption week with a full time job, Air Cadets, as well as sleeping and eating.... My life is 95% adoption, without adding in sleep - and I probably dream about adoption then too. I just wanted to publicly say to EACH and EVERY adoptive parent out there.... If I had the opportunity and the money I would award each of you with something you need to make your life better. Every adoptive parent does such an amazing job each and every day, dealing with the trauma of children who have effectively been damaged in their earlier years, some with it continuing in their time in care.
National Adoption Week should cover a lot of things, but I think the days of Adopter recruitment have passed, now it is about the children who we struggle to find families for, because of their age, medical conditions, disabilities etc.
Too old at 4? Pft... No chance... keep them coming!
Happy National Adoption week to ALL adoptive parents and their families.
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