7.7 Contact Planning |
RELATED CHAPTERS
For relevant procedures, see Contact with Parents and Siblings Procedure and Contact with Relatives and Friends Procedure.
Contents
- General
- The Child’s Wishes
- Frequency
- Supervision
- Venue
- Transporting
- Consulting the Carers about Contact
- Preparing for Contact
- Preparing the Parents
- Contact with Family and Friends - Who should Attend
- Observers
- Changing the Contact Programme
- Issues and Factors to be taken into Consideration when Planning Contact for Children Placed for Adoption
1. General
Contact is an essential part of a plan for a Looked After child and often helps children’s feelings of identity: being valued, respected and appreciated.
Contact on its own does not facilitate a child’s return home – additional interventions are also needed for this to occur - although it can achieve more limited and realistic goals such as reassuring the child about what is happening at home.
Contact planning should have regard to the purpose of contact when considering the type, frequency, venue, length of sessions and those who should attend. The plan should also set out any tasks to be completed within sessions, and who is responsible for specific tasks.
Contact can be through meetings, phone calls or letters with specific members of the family. Meetings can be unsupervised or supervised by social workers, foster carers, other professionals or sometimes other family members or friends.
Contact can also be arranged in a range of other ways, for example, attendance at school open days, shopping, trips to the park, etc. – the principle is to ensure that the child is safe and that contact is in their interests and social workers should be able to defend the rationale and arrangements of the contact programme. (Contact is often an issue that is brought into contention by lawyers’ for the other parties during Care Proceedings.)
There is a need to distinguish between contact with different family members, for different purposes and in different contexts – contact with some members of the family may be desirable and with other members not; similarly some children may want supervised contact or telephone contact only, whereas others may want unsupervised contact.
Recent studies have shown that looked after children generally wish to have more contact with their parents than is arranged for them and most parents are willing to provide it.
When a child becomes Looked After, contact should be planned prior to accommodation except in an emergency when planning should occur as soon as possible afterwards.
Planning for contact should always be conducted in the context of risk.
In certain circumstances contact may be associated with abuse and placement breakdown. Contact can allow abuse to continue if there is unsupervised direct contact or ineffective scrutiny of cards and letters. Where there is strong evidence of past abuse and contact between the child and the family is unrestricted, the chances of a breakdown in the child’s placement significantly increase.
Theories of attachment should be taken into account when planning and assessing contact quality; remember, the child may present as angry with the parent/s or other participants initially.
2. The Child’s Wishes
Contact is a key issue for children. They often spend a lot of time thinking about their relationship with their family and think about contact every day. They often have ambivalent feelings, both wanting contact but feeling distressed at the same time. They often desire more contact with fathers and other family members, such as brothers, sisters and grandparents, as well as with mothers, even if they are happy in their placement and do not want to return home.
It is good practice to have an accurate picture of the child’s views of different family members, and of the views posed by each – in other words, to fine tune judgments rather than see contact as a blanket event.
Where children are reluctant to attend contact, no pressure should be placed on the child. However, direct work may be needed to help prepare the child and assist the session. It is often possible to assist children who are reluctant to see their parents so that the contact is beneficial - even when the child has expressed real fear and/or anger about a parent.
3. Frequency
There are no hard and fast rules and the frequency will depend on the purpose of the contact - but where rehabilitation is envisaged, less than weekly would appear unusual. However, although overall planning needs to be carefully conducted, it is important that some contact is arranged within 48 hours of a child becoming Looked After, if possible, to reassure the child they have not been abandoned.
Frequency must also take into account the child’s routines and other day-to-day needs such that there is minimal disruption.
The following issues may be relevant to help determine frequency:
- The child’s age and development
- The degree of attachment with the parents
- The circumstances of the child’s removal from home
- Risk factors associated with the parents
- The life style of the parents
- The parents’ ability to engage with workers
- The degree of significant harm suffered by the child when at home
- The limitations of the resource or the placement or the locality
- Availability of workers and escorts
4. Supervision
Contact should only be supervised if there is a clear assessment of potential harm to the child. Risks need to be made clear to all, especially supervisors, and the health and safety issues identified and addressed. If there are significant risks, a separate health and safety meeting should be arranged to assess and plan.
Where supervision is considered appropriate, consideration should be given to whether the foster carers or other relatives may be appropriate supervisors. However, it would generally not be appropriate for relatives to supervise where the supervision is for observation and assessment purposes.
If sessions are supervised for assessment purposes, this should be made clear to all participants. Observation sessions should be planned so that participants are aware of the timetable and do not feel intruded on. Observation should not take priority over the actual contact. Participants should be made aware of what exactly is being assessed and how they should behave. Careful attention should be paid to how conversation and non-verbal cues are interpreted so that cultural, ethnic and other differences are not allowed to prejudice the interaction.
5. Venue
The venue for contact needs to be appropriate to the purpose and promotion of contact, and ensure the child’s safety.
All contact should first be explored in the carer’s home. If this is not possible a contact venue should be used. However, contact should be based as locally as possible especially for younger children. Travelling to and from contact for children after a long school day can be very tiring.
The Arnos Resource Centre is able to support some level of contact venue. This should be discussed with the centre manager and options explored. It is advisable to address the issues in this section prior to making contact with the centre manager so that all options and requirements can be addressed. For the procedure on making referrals to the Arnos Centre, see Access to Family Centres Procedure.
The social worker may need to consider other venues for contact if the Arnos Centre is not able to provide the level of support required. This should be discussed with his or her manager and alternative options explored. Contact taking place in offices should be an absolute last resort.
Where contact has to take place in a hospital or prison, the child needs to be properly prepared to avoid distress.
6. Transporting
See also Activities and Transporting Children Procedure
Planning for contact needs also to take into account transport issues for participants. Contact for infant children will require careful planning so that the child’s safety (e.g. in terms of car seats) and comfort (e.g. in terms of ensuring adequate supplies of formula milk or nappies) are ensured. In addition, consideration should be given to whether refreshments may be needed and whether they are available at the venue, as should any access and safety issues.
Participants should also be advised as to whether they can bring along sweets/food, toys/books, etc.
The arrangements for transporting the child to and from contact should be a consistent arrangement so that the person can become familiar to the child and a constant person in the child’s life.
7. Consulting Carers about Contact
Foster carers, whilst generally positive about contact, report some serious problems associated with it, such as drinking, serious mental health problems and violence from members of the child’s family. They also express concern about more common problems such as unreliability, and have worries about the impact of contact on the behaviour of the foster child as well as their own children.
These are issues on which carers should be consulted when setting up contact arrangements:
- Does the carer drive?
- What are the distances involved in the contact agreement?
- Are their other children in the placement? If so, what are their contact arrangements?
- If the venue for contact is the foster home, where will the carer and other members of the household be while contact is happening?
- What time do the carers spend with their own children/grandchildren?
- Do you know when the carer does the weekly shopping?
- When does the carer do the cleaning and preparation of meals?
- Does the carer go to church/follow his or her religious observations? How will this affect the contact arrangements?
- Does the carer engage in his or her own activities, e.g. swimming, keep-fit?
- Is the amount of contact proposed manageable for the average foster carer?
- Have you discussed with the carer what is expected of him or her as part of the contact arrangements?
8. Preparing for Contact
Contact is not usually a natural event and participants (especially the child) may need to be supported so that they are able to make the best use of the contact. As far as possible, participants should not be made to feel that they are under scrutiny and observations and professional interaction should be kept to a minimum and be as unobtrusive as possible.
Research evidence shows that, particularly in long-term placements, the success of contact arrangements is more likely where the child’s carers are centrally involved in contact meetings and are sensitive to and accepting of the child’s needs for contact so that they can help a child to make sense of his or her family structure.
Consideration should be given to whether any financial support can be made available for contact, such as to facilitate transport or activities.
Also consideration should be given to whether the parent or the child has a disability or special need that should be provided for, for example, the requirement for an interpreter where English is not the family’s first language or a family member has a disability.
Signers and interpreters should always be prepared and supported to facilitate the contact.
9. Preparing the Parents
Parents also have ambivalent feelings about contact – many desperately miss their children and want to have contact but find the experience distressing. Feelings can range from shame, relief and concern that they have failed or can be a mixture of these.
Contact is child-centred and work with parents is aimed at making contact less stressful for all concerned so that it can provide the maximum benefit for the child. Consideration should always be given to how best to support parents to manage contact – so that stress can be reduced and the outcome improved.
With drug and alcohol abusing parents, clear boundaries need to be set, explained to the parents and monitored. If parents adhere to boundaries, sessions can be extended or increased. For example, some parents should be asked to telephone to confirm they are coming to a contact session by a set time - in order to prevent a young child travelling to the contact venue only for the parents to fail to arrive. Once the parent has telephoned, the carer can be asked to bring the child. After the child arrives, there should then be a waiting period of 15 to 20 minutes after which the child is returned to their placement, unless confirmation has been received that the parents are on their way.
10. Contact with Family and Friends - Who should Attend
There should be an agreement at the outset about who the child is to see or visit. It needs to be established with whom the child has the main relationships and the social worker should be cautious of including too many others. Sometimes the whole extended family wishes to see the child and the occasion becomes too emotional. Instead, social workers should consider taking photos for the family to keep and pass to relatives.
Birthdays, anniversaries etc. are difficult times for families and they need careful planning and thought. It is unlikely to be successful for a child to have unfamiliar adults around and an emotionally tense occasion.
11. Observers
If the Children’s Guardian or solicitor wishes to attend a contact session, this should be arranged in advance and the family should be informed.
Similarly if a CAMHS or other specialist worker wishes to observe, they should be introduced to the family and the family should be given a clear explanation of why he observer is attending.
12. Changing the Contact Programme
Contact is part of the Care Plan and as such, should only be changed after careful consideration and discussion with the manager and all relevant persons. All discussions should be recorded.
It is recommended that the plan for contact outlines the circumstances in which change would be considered and how the views of others will be sought prior to any change.
The principal reason for change should be the risk of harm to the child. This can be caused by the emotional effect of contact on the child or inappropriate interaction from the parents. Planning for changes to the contact programme should take into account what contact seeks to achieve, what presenting circumstances are impeding the achievement of the goals and how these can be addressed. All discussions should be recorded clearly as any changes may be queried if there are Care Proceedings.
13. Issues and Factors to be taken into Consideration when Planning Contact for Children Placed for Adoption
Children’s Views about Contact
For the procedures on how to implement an adoption plan, see the Pan London Adoption Procedures.
Children’s attitudes towards adoption are complex and far from uniform. What contact children want or do not want should not be taken for granted and it may well change.
The child’s wishes will have an important hearing on the outcome of the contact planning process.
Contact serves many purposes for the child. This should be understood and may point to different types of contact and with different people. Birth mothers and siblings are generally the most significant contacts as well as the most frequently thought of, but others, such as fathers, former foster carers or grandparents can be just as important.
The Extent of Contact
Where it occurs it is more likely to be with mothers and siblings than any other relative. However, the significance and benefit for children of maintaining contact with their birth fathers should not be overlooked although of course, as with birth mothers and other birth relatives, a risk assessment will be required to assess the risk attached to the contact and to consider the relevance of whether the contact is in the interests of the child.
Contact Before and After Placement
Decisions made earlier (sometimes much earlier) in a child’s care career are likely to influence the pattern of contact with birth family once an adoptive placement has been made. This being so, it is of great importance that the possible implications of such decisions and future contact are taken into account at the time.
Contact after the child’s adoptive placement is likely to be adversely affected (although not necessarily reduced) if adoption has been opposed by the birth family and if the birth family continues to be antagonistic towards the plan. Skilled work with such birth parents/families will be required where it is considered to be in the child’s interests for contact to continue.
The National Adoption Standards
The National Standards highlight the relevance and significance of an importance for children in adoption maintaining direct and indirect links with birth family members. The following points need to be taken into account by social workers when planning future contact.
‘Every child will have his or her wishes and feelings listened to, recorded and taken into account. Where they are not acted upon, the reasons for not doing so will be explained to the child and properly recorded.’
‘The child’s needs, wishes and feelings, and his or her welfare and safety are the most important concerns when considering links or contacts with birth parents, wider family members and other people who are significant to the child.
‘Adoption plans will include details of the arrangements for maintaining links (including contact) with birth parents, wider birth family members and other people who are significant to the child and how and when these arrangements will be reviewed.’
‘Adoptive parents will be involved in discussions as to how they can best maintain any links, including contact, with birth relatives and significant others identified in the Adoption Plan.’
‘Where it is in the child’s best interests for there to be ongoing links, including contact, with birth parents and families (including siblings separated by adoption) birth families will be involved in discussions about how best to achieve this and help to fulfil agreed plans e.g. through practical or financial support.
Planning Contact
Planning is clearly necessary if face-to-face contact with birth relatives is to be successful in fulfilling its purpose.
It is important to recognise that contact plans for children are not set in tablets of stone and for many children who begin by having indirect contact, the benefits for the child and the adoptive family through maintaining links contact can result, as the child gets older, in a review of these arrangements and direct contact being considered. It is therefore crucial that social workers acknowledge that whilst at the time of the plan of adoption and placement of a child for adoption, direct contact may not be an option, this may change over time and therefore the child’s wishes and feelings as well as obviously the views of the adoptive parents are going to be crucial in planning for the future.
Direct Contact
Whilst adoptive parents can be sympathetic to the idea of direct contact with the birth family, especially for the sake of the children, the practical and emotional realities may weaken their willingness for it to happen.
The arrangements for direct contact can be difficult. Many adopters may require the support and guidance of a social worker before, during and after a contact session whether they are personally involved or not. The same is usually true for many of the birth family members and for the children themselves.
In considering the venue for direct contact, contact centres and family centres are often considered as an appropriate venue to facilitate the supervision of the contact, particularly as this facility helps to ensure that the agreed limits are adhered to. However, consideration also needs to be given to the possible difficulties that this can raise e.g. these meetings can be uneasy encounters not least because of the artificialness of the environment where they occur.
Contact with Foster Carers
Previous foster carers are often important people in the child’s life and the question of the extent and nature of the child’s continuing contact with them has to be addressed. Such contacts can be beneficial, but also add a further layer of complexity in the network of relationships.
Framework for Good Practice
A thorough assessment of the relationship between the child and the birth parents and family both in the past and now will be required.
Parents may have moved on and be able to work with contact now, despite previous difficulties, for example at the time of the care proceedings.
The Adoption and Permanence Panel has a role to ascertain the quality of the child’s relationships with his or her family members. The Panel should ascertain whether direct work with the child has been undertaken to establish (i) the child’s understanding of adoption and (ii) the capacity on the part of the child and birth family members to participate in a contact arrangement.
Has work been done with the child to ensure that he or she is clear about adoption and permanency as the plan? Does he or she understand about ‘for keeps’?
A good contact plan should confirm, not confuse the situation.
Has there been an assessment of how realistic the child is about what the birth family can and cannot offer, for example can the child manage inconsistency? A child who cannot manage inconsistency of contact may well be very damaged by parents failing to attend and the risk of this may mean it is inappropriate for direct contact to be considered.
Can the birth family manage the proposed contact arrangements and is the proposed contact appropriate to the expectations and lifestyle of the birth family?
Social workers need to take into account whether or not the birth family can manage contact in a non-destructive way and are they able to take the long-term view? Are they motivated? Is direct contact at a frequency, day of the week and distance from home that is manageable?
Has a full assessment of the birth family’s attitudes to the adoption plan been carried out? Can the birth family work with the plan? This does not mean that the birth family will necessarily be enthusiastic and ecstatic. However, more importantly, consideration should be given to evidence of regular and reliable attendance by birth families at contacts, reviews and meetings that have occurred previously?
It is helpful for the birth family to have a separate worker and an independent mediator, particularly where the birth relative is in conflict with the Local Authority. This could have a beneficial effect on the quality of the contact.
Adopters’ Views on Contact
The attitude of adoptive families to contact is crucial. A positive attitude can grow from good preparation and training, opportunities to meet with other families, and from a positive attitude by the placing agency.
Support
At times, contact may be difficult and adopters need to know who in the agency they can approach and share any concerns with.
Enfield Adoption Support Service is able both to supervise some direct contact but also act as a point for social workers to discuss issues, concerns or plans they may wish to make for direct contact with a child placed for adoption with members of their birth family.
Post Placement and Post Adoption Issues – Contact in the Longer Term
When contact plans are made and agreements are drawn up, all parties need to be made aware that life moves on; the child’s wishes and feelings may change and neither the circumstances of the birth family nor the adoptive family’s circumstances are static.
All agreements need to reflect the fact that contact will change in form and structure over time and undertakings will need to be refined and modified over the years. This is an essential message to give all involved in contact arrangements – it will reduce the scope for disappointment, scepticism or distrust amongst the parties in the future.
Post Placement and Post Adoption Contact - Framework for Good Practice
The child
Is the Department satisfied that:
- Key factors in the history of the child and family are known and the implications have been taken into account?
- Direct work with the child has been sufficient to establish the child’s understanding of adoption and capacity for participating in a contact arrangement - the uniqueness of each child’s situation has to be fully recognised, particularly when part of a sibling group.
- There will be effective and objective monitoring of the child’s response to supported contact.
Birth Family
Is the Department satisfied that:
- The proposed contact is appropriate to the expectations and lifestyle of the birth family
- The basis exists for a working relationship with the birth family now and in the future
- There has been an assessment of the birth family’s attitude to the history of neglect/abuse
- All relevant birth family members and other significant people’s future contact has been considered
The Agency
Under the Adoption Support Regulations, Enfield Adoption Agency has responsibility to assess for any direct contact where there may be funding implications. Whilst this agency does manage and supervise a small number of contact arrangements, consideration also needs to be given to whether this could be more effectively managed by one of the family centres. This may be particularly relevant where the child, or birth family may have already had prior experience of the particular family centre and this may be relevant also where those experiences have been positive and where it may be beneficial for the child to have contact at a family centre where they are familiar with the surroundings and staff. The agency needs to meet with the social worker and where appropriate, any parties to the agreement to draw up a contract for direct contact.
See Access to Family Centres Procedure
The Planning Process
Provisional plans for direct contact ought to be considered from the point at which the Permanency Planning Meeting takes place. Subsequent planning for direct contact needs to come before the attention of the Adoption and Permanency Panel where the best interest decision for the child is being considered. Subsequent to this, the matching process and subsequent presentation of the match to the Adoption and Permanency Panel will also highlight the any plans for direct contact. Therefore, the social worker needs to have clear views when writing reports for the Adoption and Permanency Panel regarding the proposed contact plan for the child.
For the relevant procedures in relation to this, see Chapter x, Permanence Planning and Placement.
Face to Face Contact
Direct contact between birth relatives following the adoption is most likely to be in the child’s interests where the following criteria has been met:
- There is an established positive relationship, which needs to be preserved.
- There is clear evidence that such a relationship will not threaten the stability of the adoptive placement and that the birth parents will not undermine the adoptive plan.
- It does not require a long-term active intermediary role. This is different from responding to adopters or birth parents’ request for help in managing a difficult situation via the Adoption Support Service.
- There is confidence in seeking a placement and that the defined level of contact is realistic in relation to actual or potential adoption resources.
- The contact does not place the child at any risk of harm.
Functions of Contact
Direct or Indirect contact with birth family members and significant others may serve a number of different functions for the child, varying over time.
Contact may be beneficial for one or more of the following reasons:
- To enable the child to develop a realistic understanding of the circumstances leading to the separation.
- To enable the child to grieve his/her loss.
- To enable the child to move on and develop an attachment to new carers with the blessing of his or her parents.
- To reassure the child that the birth parents or other relatives continue to care about the child and thereby enhance the child’s self esteem.
- To promote stability in a new or existing placement by providing continuity and enabling connections to be maintained.
- To reassure the child about the wellbeing of birth relatives, especially siblings, whether they are living with the birth relatives or in an alternative family.
- To provide an opportunity for the adopted child to gain more knowledge and understanding about his or her personal and family history and cultural background
Changing Needs
Contact arrangements are likely to change over time in response to a child’s changing needs: the frequency and location of face to face meetings may be varied, or the nature of contact may change, for example contact by letter to face to face meetings or vice versa.
Well-managed contact arrangements are time consuming, especially where there are potential conflicts of interest. Corners cut risk further losses for the child.
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