Financially Preparing For Adoption

dexters_mum_2

We have finally come to the decision that we are going to adopt.

We have now started the ball rolling and done our expression of interest form for the Local Authority and are in the process of having CRB checks done prior to a prep course.

We know we have to pay for the statutory medical, £73.68 or thereabouts, but aside from the normal child things we would have to buy, such as beds, clothes toys etc, what else should we budget for buying?

We were looking at adopting a 2 child sibling group about a year ago, but we couldn't get on the waiting list, now we have started the process because we have expressed an interest in adopting a little chap who have been in care for 2 years now, who is on the autism spectrum and hasn't had a positive expression of interest as yet, so I'd also be interested in what we should be budgeting for a child with autism needs, the child in question receives Disability Living Allowance and there would be some kind of financial support initially from the local authority, but, we do want to save enough to be able to completely provide what a child would need, over and above the initial grant.

This little chap has issues with developmental delay, speech and slight motor co-ordination problems and goes to special needs nursery.

I supposed what I am asking is, if you have a child on the autism spectrum, do they need special toys, equiptment and what is generally the cost of a child attending a special nursery, generally, there has been no indication that the LA would pay for a special nursery, so I would want to be able to save enough to be able to continue with this locally. Obviously, this child may well get adopted before we get to the approval point but we would still be looking at the same type of child/children.

We don't have children of our own and can't, which is why we are adopting and we have little idea, at this point, of what we need to budget for, as stupid as that sounds, the soical worker says she will do this in a few months time but obviously we want to get saving as soon as possible.

Would gratefully appreciate any advice on this, if anyone has any.

DM

pukkamum

I don't have any answers but just wanted to say i hope you are successful so few children with special needs are adopted that to know he has been chosen will always mean a huge amount to him x x x x

dexters_mum_2

Aww thanks Pukkamum, that's so nice.
I hope we get this little boy but he may be adopted before we get approved, just hoping we can get going!!

Thanks again for your post xx

minimoneysaver

You should contact your local child services and find out if they have any courses on dealing with Autism and children on the autistic spectrum. There is so much information out there. Just remember, each child is an individual and they all present with different behaviours.

silvercar

From friends who have children with special needs of varying degrees (some main stream school some not) is that these children do need more spending on them than their other children. Whatever resources are available and provided by the council or benefits, there are costs which are not claimable.

princess

When we adopted our son we were given a one off grant when he moved in to buy him stuff - a few years ago now, but I havent heard if has been removed. It was standard and not means tested at all. It was up to £1000 and organised by the soc serv dept that he came from. To be honest we hadnt expected it and were only told about it a few weeks before we 'took delivery' so to speak, so we had already bought everything we needed. Reciepts were needed for everything and it all had to be child related. We actually told the dept that we didnt really need much of it (as we had everything), but they told us to spend it on something or other, even suggesting we get him a computer, brand new bed etc, so we did!