Supporting post adoption contact for children adopted from care: A study of social workers' attitudes

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Abstract

New legislation in England and Wales requires adoption agencies to specify the contact adopted children will have with their birth families and obliges agencies to offer all parties support to maintain such contact. This study, based on responses from 112 adoption social workers in England and Wales, used a case vignette methodology to explore workers' attitudes towards supporting post-adoption contact. The findings suggest that social workers think primarily about the child's needs and about providing services to or on behalf of the child. In contrast, adults' needs, especially the relationship between birth parents and adoptive parents, were less often considered. Workers were least orientated toward supporting birth parents. Workers from different agencies had very different attitudes towards the case vignette. This study suggests that supporting post-adoption contact is a complex professional task likely to be influenced by workers' own attitudes. Implications for training, support and supervision are discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3-28
Number of pages26
JournalAdoption Quarterly
Volume10
Issue number3/4
Early online date11 Oct 2008
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008

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