Sibling contact events ‘could help local authorities to improve long-term relationships’

Developed and delivered by the children’s charity Coram, the Sibling Time event was piloted in Leicestershire in early August 2023.

The model is based on calls from children in care to stay in contact with siblings and on previous research by the Children’s Commissioner for England which found that good quality sibling contact is associated with positive wellbeing outcomes for children.

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The pilot event was attended by ten children and 11 parents and carers.

The three-hour session, funded by the Hadley Trust, was facilitated by nine professionals including staff from Coram’s Activity Days team, social workers and play specialists.

It focussed on child-led free play with supported activities. During the session, parents and carers were offered training around various topics such as supporting sibling contact and life story work.

The evaluation of the project found that Sibling Time was “implemented successfully and that the service shows significant signs of promise”.

Five of seven professionals interviewed about the project rated their experience as excellent and all felt that children were engaged and enjoyed the time with their sibling.

One professional highlighted the potential of Sibling Time events to act as a “starting block” for relationships that could enable families “to feel confident to move it along to unsupervised in the community”.

Children who took part in the event said that they would be keen to see their siblings again in the future.

Max Stanford, head of impact and evaluation at Coram, said: “Sibling Time shows signs of significant promise in helping local authorities to support meaningful contact between separated siblings, offering them the opportunity to build strong relationships and emotional connections.”

The evaluation also shared recommendations on how best to strengthen the scheme including providing training to staff about facilitating play to “ensure that there is a common approach for all professionals at the event”, as well as range of training courses tailored to parents/carers attending.

It also highlighted the need to implement data collection at local level to improve monitoring and evaluation of the programme.

There will be an online information session on Sibling Time on 19 April from 10.00 – 11.30. To register, please contact: adoption.activitydays@coram.org.uk