We were about to give up… then we heard about Nugent

“Nugent Adoption was recommended to us by another couple who had adopted through them. We were about to give up as our local authority hadn’t rung us back after our initial enquiry with them when we heard about Nugent Adoption.

Nugent couldn’t have been more friendly or welcoming from the start, and it was a good job, as we already had quite a long process to become parents. We were allocated a dedicated social worker and within a couple of months invited onto the preparation groups, they run for prospective adoptive parents. It was a three-day course at the time and was full of information about what adoption means for both parents and the children. Next, we had to have our medicals completed first and foremost because of existing medical conditions. Due to a few mix-ups with our doctor, these weren’t completed for a few months. By the time Nugent had them back our allocated social worker was due to go onto maternity leave, ironic or what?! She dealt with it all in a very friendly and professional manner and was empathetic to our situation.

Nugent got in touch with us and introduced us to our new allocated social worker, and that was it – we never looked back. It wasn’t all plain sailing and we didn’t get our match with our (now) daughter for quite a while but through all the months of being assessed, DBS checks, medicals and waiting to be approved at panel, Nugent and our social worker, were always there either on the end of the phone, an email away or in person. Our social worker helped and supported us through every step of the way, alleviating any concerns we had, helping us with any issues and answering our hundreds of questions.

Nugent and our worker attended exchange days and activity days, sometimes looking for children for us if we were unable to attend ourselves and it was our worker who ‘found’ our daughter for us.

Initially, we wanted 1-2 children ages 0-3, then upped the ages to 0-7. We eventually adopted an older child, she was 8, almost 9, when matched and placed with us. It has been very difficult at times, but Nugent has been there for us every step of the way. We moved on from our allocated worker to a post-adoption support social worker, but we still know that any of the lovely people that work at Nugent are available to speak to should we need them, at any time now or in the future.

Nugent organise a summer party and a winter party every year for all the families that they have helped to create and hold various support events throughout the year should anyone need their support from coffee mornings to specific courses, like therapeutic life story work or Theraplay techniques.

We have also recommended Nugent Adoption to people we know who are looking to adopt and at least one of those people have also started their journey to become parents too.

We wouldn’t hesitate to use Nugent again, if or when we decide to adopt a second time.”

Angela and Ian