In The Field Of Adoption What Is A Home Study?

A home study is the process of finding out about you, your support networks (i.e. family and friends) and your ability to parent a child. It is actually a series of meetings between you, your partner if you are adopting as a couple and your social worker. The social worker might also want to meet with other important family members. These might include your parents and any children you already have. The process usually starts with some group meetings with other prospective adopters to find out more about children in need of new families. Then if you decide to continue you will have a series of meetings and possibly some training courses to attend. Some of these will be in your home, some may be at the social worker's office. Some meetings will be for you alone and at others you and your partner if you have one will meet with your social worker together. The purpose is to help you understand what adoption and parenting will require of you and to help the social worker figure out what kind of children would be a good match for you. The home study usually takes months rather than weeks. This helps make sure you have really thought about what you plan to do. When you social worker is happy to recommend you an independent body knows as an adoption panel will further assess your suitability to adopt mainly using reports written by the social worker.