'It would be nice for him to know the person he spent the first twelve months of his life with': Adopters' views and experiences of the contact retained or lost between children and their foster carers

Objective: Nearly all children placed for adoption in the UK will have spent time in foster care before moving into their adoptive home. Most will have been removed from birth family following abuse and/or neglect. For many of... [ view full abstract ]

Objective: Nearly all children placed for adoption in the UK will have spent time in foster care before moving into their adoptive home. Most will have been removed from birth family following abuse and/or neglect. For many of these children, the attention shown to them whilst in their foster placement represents their first experience of safe, nurturing care. The importance of considering how best to manage the relationship between a child and their foster carer following the child’s move into their adoptive home has been the focus of recent attention. In particular, emphasis has been placed on recognising the benefits of continued foster carer contact with children post placement. Historically, social work practice has tended to support the notion of a ‘clean break’ between foster carers and children, in the belief that this will give a child the best chance to settle with their new family. However, for some children, it seems possible that this may engender feelings of confusion, powerlessness, loss and rejection. This presentation, drawing on a national sample of children recently placed for adoption, contributes to what is known about the decisions made (or not made) regarding children’s contact with their foster carer post adoptive placement. We report on adoptive parents’ views and experiences of the contact (or lack of contact) during the first few months of the adoptive placement.
Method: The Wales Adoption Study used a mixed-methods approach to examine the characteristics and experiences of a national sample of children recently placed for adoption in Wales, to consider the early support needs of adoptive families into which the children were placed, and to better understand what helps these families to flourish. The case file records of all children placed for adoption in Wales over a 13 month period were scrutinised (n=374), 96 questionnaires were completed by adopters into which a representative sample of these children were placed and a subsample of 40 adoptive parents were interviewed in depth. Questionnaires were completed between 3-5 months post placement, with the interviews typically taking place about 6 months thereafter. This presentation is based largely on material drawn from the interview work with the adoptive parents, in which they talked in detail about the child’s transition to their adoptive home and their experience of the subsequent contact (or cessation of contact) with the child’s foster carer.
Results: For just under a third of the children in the questionnaire sample, plans were made for continued direct contact with the foster carer once the child moved into their adoptive home. Ten percent of families planned to have postal contact with foster carers. Analysis of the interview data is underway and will be presented in full at conference. Initial orientations suggest that a range of factors influence whether continued contact occurs between foster carers and children, once the child moves on for adoption. These include:
• The involvement of social workers in decision making.
• The quality of the relationship between adoptive parents and foster carers
• The commitment by the involved adults in maintaining contact
• The preparation of children in their understanding of adoption
• The foster carer’s ability to maintain contact in a way that prioritises children’s needs
• The importance attached by adopters to the continuing involvement of the foster carer in their child’s life.
• Adopters’ views about the quality of the care shown to children in their foster care placement.
Conclusion: This presentation contains novel material about adoptive parents’ views and experiences of the contact maintained or lost between children and foster carers, once children move on for adoption. Implications for social work practice will be discussed.