Dear Sophie and Lynn,

Thank you for moving forward the debate about this important issue. Most of my research has focused on adopted children’s contact with their birth relatives. However in my study of children placed into adoption under the age of four, it was apparent that for most children placed in this age range, their significant attachment relationships were with foster carers.

Adoptive parents gave very moving accounts of the intensely emotional nature of the child’s transition from the foster carers to their family, with feelings running high for all concerned, but especially for the children who in some cases experienced a profound sense of loss.

How children coped with this move seem to depend on their age and experience, but also crucially on how well both the foster carers and the adoptive parents could manage their own feelings and work together to reassure the child.

I know from my contacts with professionals in the field that there is a lot of uncertainty about exactly how to manage transitions, and about the advisability or otherwise of children’s contact with foster carers, and I agree with you that it’s time to reflect on and revise practice in this field.

Myself and my colleagues at UEA Prof Gillian Schofield and Dr Mary Beek have been working with John Simmonds from Coram BAAF and Prof Danya Glaser from Great Ormond Street Hospital to develop plans for a project in this area. We are planning to review all the relevant literature; consult with foster carers, adoptive parents, and practitioners already pioneering in this field; and develop and pilot some resources and frameworks that can be used to support practice around children’s transitions.

We would love to hear from any practitioners who have already started work on shaping and changing practice around foster to adoption transitions in their agencies, for example through developing training for foster carers and adopters, practice or assessment frameworks to help plan children’s moves, or who have developed ways of supporting children or adults with their feelings.

We would like to draw on people’s experience and expertise through sharing ideas about these initiatives, and we hope to recruit practitioners to join our stakeholder consultation group. I can be contacted at e.neil@uea.ac.uk and will be very pleased to hear from anyone interested in contributing to this project.

Beth Neil, Professor of Social Work at the University of East Anglia

I've just read your excellent research and the new report by The Fostering Network on continued contact. I will definitely be passing this on to foster carers and social workers. I've recently set-up a project in the local authority where I work looking at how we manage transitions in a more child-focused way so the reports will be very useful as part of this. The group will include social workers, foster carers, adopters and looked after young people/care leavers. 

I've worked as a social worker in fostering for many years (in addition to independent work) and written two therapeutic stories for children for CoramBAAF. I'm always interested in new research and child-centred practice. Good to discover your website.

Thank you

Jill

Hi Sophie/Lynne,

I read with interest your article in the Guardian. I am a children's social worker who is also an adoptive mum. We maintained a relationship with our son's foster carer and her family which continues to this day. Birthday and Christmas presents are exchanged and we have been to weddings and christenings. 

We have pictures of his foster family in his bedroom - they had looked after him as a small baby up to nearly three years old, when he was placed with us. His foster carer passed away and with the foster family we supported him through that and maintained contact with her adult daughter.

Initially I admit to feeling threatened; she had been the only 'mother' figure he had known. I read a really old book by Vera Fahlberg and slept on it. My husband and I agreed his emotional wellbeing was most important - more than anything else - so we got on with it.

​You are both highlighting one area, as I am sure you both know there are other parts of the adoption 'journey' that need thought as well.

Kindest Regards

My experience over many years fits with your research.
 
It is also an issue for children and young people who move to other foster placements. (As an example - some of our Foster Carers promised two young people when they left that they would never forget them and since then have always sent birthday and Christmas cards and small gifts. This year these have been returned because we are told that the young people are unsettled in their current placement. When we challenged this we were given the conventional wisdom!)
 
I also spoke to a Foster Carer today who is looking after a 16 month old and already trying to get himself emotionally ready for the inevitable departure, knowing that it is likely to be pretty abrupt.
 
Nigel Fenlon
Service Manager
Fostering People
Abercynon

Thanks for your email and I've had a read of your paper that I've found helpful.

I have a personal interest as well in that we have adopted ourselves.

I will ensure our social workers in Fostering People have access to your paper - I agree with your findings.

Thanks John.

John Platt
Director of Operations
Fostering People
Nottingham

Many thanks for alerting me to your website which I will visit and I am sure learn from. I am absolutely confident that debate is needed and that we should all be grateful to you for your initiative.

As you know, I found it very odd that so little attention was paid to the importance or otherwise of the relationships of adopted children to their former foster carers. After all they had often spent most of their early lives with them, and the scope for misunderstanding or misinterpreting the move was considerable (e.g. it would be easy to see it as a punishment or rejection or as yet further evidence of the unpredictability of all relationships).

Professor Ian Sinclair
Emeritus Professor
Social Policy Research Unit
University of York

Brenda McLackland, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, writes:​

Click here to visit Simply Fostering News blog.
(NB There are no direct links to blog posts, so you will need to scroll down to find the post).

A piece referencing our 'The Children Were Fine' research has appeared on The Australian Childhood Foundation Blog for Professionals.

The article, entitled 'Placement transitions in Out of Home Care', was written by Drew Browning, a Therapeutic Specialist, Therapeutic Care Program at the Australian Childhood Foundation.

Click here for the full article.

​In February 2015, we received the following email from an Independent Reviewing Officer in the UK: