VA — Voluntary Agency. A (usually) not-for-profit agency that provides adoption services.

LA — Local Authority. Each Local Authority has to provide adoption serivces. Most cities or counties have a ‘friendly’ name for their agency, but they’re referred to by prospective adopters as LA’s.

WFH — working from home

PAR — not sure what the abbreviation is, but this is the form that is the result of our home study. It’s a long report that is used by the adoption panel to evaluate us. Maybe it stands for Prospective Adopter’s Report?

s/w — social worker

BAAF — British Association of Adoption and Fostering

CPR — Child Permanence Report. This is the full background report on a child.