How do social workers think about adopted children's contact with birth relatives, and are their ideas evidenced based?

In England, adoption is used to achieve permanency for some children in the care system. Social workers must consider what, if any, contact the children should have with their birth relatives after adoption. Although the views... [ view full abstract ]

In England, adoption is used to achieve permanency for some children in the care system. Social workers must consider what, if any, contact the children should have with their birth relatives after adoption. Although the views of children, birth relatives, and adoptive parents must also be taken into account, the social work role in determining post adoption contact is a powerful one.

This paper will use empirical data to compare how social workers think about birth family contact, with the evidence about the experiences and outcomes of such contact. It will draw on data from two studies: the “Contact after Adoption” study which collected questionnaire data from the social workers of 168 children, and which followed up 65 children from their adoption in early childhood through to late adolescence; and the “Supporting Direct Contact” study which collected data from 112 social workers (who responded to a fictional case vignette) and from 55 adoptive parents and 39 birth relatives.

The presentation will explore the contact plans that social workers made for children, and their reasoning in devising these. It will look at how social workers set up and manage direct contact meetings between children and their birth relatives, and their attitudes towards the different parties in contact. Social workers’ hopes and fears about contact will then be compared to the outcomes of contact for children as explored in the two studies. These outcomes suggest that decision making about contact for children in out of home care needs to be sensitive to each child’s situation, balancing risks, benefits and challenges. Social workers can have too strong a focus on risk management whilst at the same time underestimating the challenging relationship dynamics of contact, and the potential long-term benefits to the child in terms of their identity development and managing multiple family membership.