Who this is for

The front-of-house team, adoption enquiries team, receptionists, office administrators, business support and service volunteers

Details

This practice webinar will look at how the quality and effectiveness of a Front Line Enquires Service is key to the adoption service as it provides an essential role in the recruitment of prospective adopters for the children waiting and more specifically for those children who wait the longest. A view of an agency will be formed by an enquirer/prospective adopter at the point of first contact and receiving a prompt, inclusive, and informative response to an adoption enquiry is very much welcomed and valued.

“Prospective adopters generally appreciate an open and honest conversation with them with regards to the adoption process, the current adoption climate and the children waiting”.

This session is an opportunity to explore with your peers effective adoption enquiry processes and ways of working with prospective adopters at the point of initial enquiry that instils confidence in taking the next steps on their adoption journey.

Learning 0utcomes

• Obtain an overview of a front-line enquiries service from the point of first contact/initial enquiry through to submissions/acceptance of Registration of Interest (RoI)
• Exploration of the information sharing and capturing and signposting that is required at the enquiry stage and how this effectively helps prepare, in the current adoption climate, prospective adopters for the next stage in the recruitment process
• Consider how the National Recruitment Campaigns Mystery shopping analysis/report/feedback can be used to improve front-line enquiries services
• Share best practice through group discussion with others

About the trainers

Darryl Pottinger, Ruth Awai-FitzGerald and Anna Webster

Darryl is the Senior Enquiries Officer at PACT and has, for the past 9 years, provided advice and guidance to prospective adopters in preparation for their adoption journey and has been central to the development of PACT’s front line enquiries service. He is a foster parent with 15 years’ experience working to achieve successful outcomes and permanency for children.

Ruth is an Enquiries Officer and PACT adopter. She has been in her role in the enquiries team since February 2022. Prior to that, she regularly spoke at information events about her adoption experience with PACT and was also involved in an interview with radio Berkshire and a Facebook live about being a black adopter. Ruth’s story about adoption after infertility featured in an article in Fabulous magazine in 2021.

Anna has been working at PACT since 2019. She first volunteered to help deliver the information events that PACT holds for prospective adopters, before helping the family finding team during COVID. She is now part of the enquiries team and works as an Enquiries Officer. Anna has prior experience working in childcare for adopted children in therapeutic and educational settings.

Instructions

A member of staff will be in touch with attendees one week prior to the event to share a pre-event delegate pack.

If you have any questions regarding this webinar, please contact us at info@cvaa.org.uk. We will aim to answer your query within two working days.

CVAA accept online payments only. In case you do not have instant access to your company card, we suggest using your personal card instead to book a training event and claim it back with your agency in your expenses. Requesting an invoice to pay for our standard practice events is not possible.