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

Ongoing contact between foster carers and their former foster children is not being supported, despite most kids wanting it.

A report by The Fostering Network found that 81% of 179 children in foster care felt maintaining relationships was important, yet 55% said their social workers did not support contact “at all”.

​More than 1,100 foster carers were also surveyed, and almost a third said their fostering service had not supported contact.

​Click here for the full report.

An article by Andrew Browning of the Australian Childhood Foundation entitled 'Undertaking planned transitions for children in out-of-home care' was published in the March 2015 issue of Adoption & Fostering.

Here's an abstract of this article:

For many children in long-term out-of-home care, transition from one family to another forms one of their key experiences. These changes are often traumatic. In this article, we articulate some of the practices that may soften the painfulness of the experience of movement. One such practice is the development of a gradual transition process that avoids dramatic discontinuities for the child. Part of this process involves the child having ongoing contact with the family from which he or she has moved, with this contact decreasing gradually. Another aspect of a successful transition is the development of a constructive relationship between the two families involved. If this can be created, a child is more likely to be emotionally held in the process. This type of transition also requires oversight from a well-functioning professional team that can create a structured plan that holds and supports all those affected; the aim is to enable the child to have a manageable experience of a situation that is likely to evoke powerful feelings of abandonment, grief and loss.

You can access the full article at aaf.sagepub.com/content/39/1/51.abstract.

This is an interesting paper by Susan M Ward on helping adopted children to grieve. 

It can be found on the Attachment Coalition of Michigan website or by clicking on the link below:

View 'Grief and loss throughout the lives of adopted children' paper >>