Post-adoption contact set to go digital

Systems of contact between adopted children and their birth families have remained the same for more than 20 years but momentum is growing for a major overhaul to bring them up to date.

The so-called letterbox system – whereby physical letters are sent and received at a predetermined frequency – has been in use for decades, but concerns are growing that it is outdated in an age of social media where people can be traced and contacted with relative ease, and it simply does not provide children with the meaningful interactions necessary to support their wellbeing.

A report published in September by charity Pause –which supports women whose children have been removed from their home or are at risk of being placed in care – highlighted concerns about the effectiveness of the letterbox system and the quality of support in place to facilitate it.

Modern alternatives

There are now moves to provide modern alternatives that utilise technology to facilitate contact in a safe way. One pioneering system under development is ARCBOX (see box), which has been created by voluntary adoption agency ARC Adoption North East.

Andrew Webb, chair of trustees at the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies, backs such innovation. He says traditional letterbox contact was devised at a time when the vast majority of adopted children were relinquished babies and the expectation was that the connection between children and natural parents was “severed”.

However, today virtually all adoptions are “contested cases”, where a child may have been with their birth family for several years, and a relationship developed. Webb says that in light of this, and the importance of life story work to a young person’s wellbeing, the adoption system needs to be “much more open”. In the right circumstances regular digital and even face-to-face contact would benefit children and improve their outcomes, he adds.

There are risks associated with such a move. Webb cites a study conducted by Harriet Ward, professor of child and family research at Loughborough University, who assessed the impact of mandatory face-to-face post-adoption contact in New South Wales, Australia. While highlighting benefits in terms of children and young people understanding their identity, her study flagged a number of concerns.

“What has been shown is that some parents who struggle as parents, unsurprisingly struggle to provide meaningful contact,” he says. “They may need help spelling, or some may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“Where there is no controlling mechanism or mediation [for contact] it can be quite a poor experience for some children – but that is not a reason not to do it.

“It needs a proper resource base – for adoption agencies to embrace it and find the resources, which is as much the case for digital contact as it is for face-to-face.

“It needs to be part of the overall offer of post adoption support. At the moment that is all placed into therapeutic work.”

Meaningful interaction

Sue Armstrong Brown, chief executive of Adoption UK, says most adoptive parents would welcome a platform that allows for sharing of news in real time, subject to measures being in place to protect data and prevent unsafe content being posted, as it would be a far better way of promoting meaningful interaction than “a fairly sterile annual letter”.

Research by her organisation has found that 28 per cent of adopted children aged between 13 and 18 have had direct contact with a member of their birth family outside of formal arrangements, often as a result of online searches.

In some cases this is a decision made by the child with the support of their adoptive parents, but in many cases children are making contact on their own – a situation where Armstrong Brown says things are “most likely to go wrong”.

“Contact procedures need to be updated for the digital era,” she says.

“There needs to be some development work done to provide much better support during contact and also before that point. Children need to be given more support understanding their life journey for when they get to the contact stage, which is likely to be in their teenage years.

“If not, you are more likely to see the kinds of catastrophes such as children running away, or, in the worst cases, families breaking down.”

Understanding identity

Local authorities also back change. Edwina Grant, chair of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services health, care and additional needs policy committee, says children want to understand their identity and to know where they have come from.

“Given what we know, it is right that we consider what an adoption system for the 21st century should look like so it can best meet the needs of children, considering issues such as the continued viability of closed adoption as a default, and issues around contact,” she says.

“If we are to explore more open arrangements and embrace a system that allows birth families to play a continuing role in their child’s life, we also need to consider birth families and the resources required to support them to have positive relationships with their birth children. This is an area of policy which requires both attention and national investment.”

ARCBOX COLLATES CHILDREN’S EXPERIENCES

Initially created with funding from the Department for Education’s adoption services practice and improvement fund in 2017, ARCBOX is a digital platform that children and young people can use in much the same way as a social media account.

It is currently a one-way system. Approved contributors can upload images, audio, video and text which is displayed within an easily accessible timeline, viewed only by the person contributing the information, the life story editor and ultimately, the child.

All contributions must be approved by the life story editor (usually the child’s social worker, or other professional) before they can be viewed.

The system has been purchased by two local authority children’s services departments in Cumbria and Sunderland and is currently used by around 80 children across those two authorities and ARC Adoption North East.

A trial of a two-way system involving up to 24 children is due to get under way early next year. Under the two-way system, where appropriate, a digital dialogue will be possible between the child and key people in their life, such as their birth family, with support being provided to the birth family as part of the process.

A video chat function is also being considered.