Roles and responsibilities

They are likely to have the best knowledge about the lifelong needs of the adopted person and should engage early with frontline social workers and decision makers to ensure all are thinking of the adopted person’s likely long-term needs. They may be able to offer drop in ‘keeping in touch consultations’, provide training, and support child permanence report writing and early meetings between adoptive parents and birth family members. 

They are likely to have good knowledge of the strengths and challenges of the birth family, and the wider support network around the child prior to removal. Family conferences and kinship assessments can be used to identify people who are or could be important for the child to keep in touch with, even if they are not able to offer permanent care. 

Training and development courses must help prospective adoptive parents think about the lifelong needs of the adopted child. Adoptive parents need to be supported to consider how keeping in touch with, and having open communication about, important people can have long term benefits, including helping to develop a trusting and close relationship with their child. 

This Adoption England guide for adopters can help them to understand their role in supporting their children to build safe and meaningful connections. It shows how meaningful family relationships can help children heal from emotional trauma and develop a strong sense of who they are. Adopters as Custodians of Children’s Connections.pdf.

They can be disempowered by the adversarial child protection court process and disengage from professional support and child and family services. They may continue to struggle with issues that are strongly related to child removal (e.g. learning disability, mental illness, domestic violence, care experience and substance misuse). They may need to be supported and given time to adapt to the traumatic experience of adoption before being able participate constructively in keeping in touch planning, life story work, and meeting adoptive parents. Research shows that parents are often able to and very much want to re-engage if given future opportunities.

They may find it difficult to focus on the reality of adoption, especially if supporting the parent in their attempts to continue parenting. Many may not understand how a role in supporting the child post adoption can be valued by adoptive families. A focus on assessment for permanent care should not sideline the importance of lifelong links that can and should be made or continued.

They should focus on helping parents/relatives participate in meetings or early engagement with the adoptive parents and their keeping in touch plans.

They need to ensure the quality of keeping in touch planning and ensure that all possible options are considered to ensure the best outcome for the child’s lifelong needs.

The use of s.26 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 may be considered to set out the needs of the child to stay in touch with relevant birth family members beyond the point of the placement order (where prospective adopters may not yet be identified), particularly in cases where it would be detrimental for the child to have contact cut off at this stage. These orders will end when the adoption order is made but may set the tone for what should happen after the adoption order and allow a period of time for the proposed contact to be actively supported by the adoption agency. Additionally s.51A of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 may sometimes be used to facilitate a review of contact by the court after the making of the adoption order (e.g. where direct contact is not appropriate at the time of the order but may be indicated at a future time). 

They need to look specifically at the recommendations around contact to ensure the quality of keeping in touch planning. They need to check all possible options are considered to achieve the best outcome for the child’s lifelong needs. A contact section should be included in the standard Cafcass template.

They can check how keeping in touch plans are going up to the point of the adoption order being made and consider whether any changes or support may be necessary to ensure links are not lost prior to adoption.