of panel meetings 1.25. Adoption panels must not be the “bottleneck” in the decision-making process. They must meet frequently and be able to meet at short notice before the next scheduled meeting to deal with urgent cases. See standard 17.3 of the NMS. 1.26. Panel clerks and the children’s social workers should liaise closely to identify those children for whom adoption is the plan and whose case must be referred to the adoption panel (see chapter 2 paragraph 64). Early notification will then allow the clerk to arrange an early panel meeting. Similarly, the panel clerk should liaise with the adoption team in respect of prospective adopters and the matching of children and prospective adopters to ensure that there is no delay in panel consideration of these cases. The central list: AAR 3 1.27. Each agency must maintain a list of persons whom it considers suitable to be a member of an adoption panel. There is no limit on the number of people who may be included on the central list. Having a pool of people with different skills, experience and qualifications allows for the most appropriate members to be drawn upon to consider individual cases and reduces the likelihood of panel meetings having to be postponed, whilst retaining knowledgeable and experienced members without the need to wait for a vacancy to occur to appoint a new member to the list. 1.28. Before including an individual on the central list, the agency should inform them in writing of their performance objectives, which should include participation in induction and training, and safeguarding the confidentiality of records and information submitted to the panel. The individual members should sign an acceptance form to record their agreement to these objectives. 1.29. The central list must include individuals w