Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to Adoption UK’s Barometer Report, published in June, what steps they are taking to measure the impact of a lack of support for adopted people and their families when establishing birth family contact.

Local authorities have a legal duty to provide a comprehensive adoption service. This specifically includes 'Assistance, including mediation services, in relation to arrangements for contact between an adoptive child and a natural parent, natural sibling, former guardian or a related person of the adoptive child', as set out in Adoption Support Services Regulations 2005. It be found at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/691/part/2/made?view=plain. Contact arrangements should be reviewed regularly, and families should be supported with the contact arrangements before, during and after the adoption.

As set out in our 'Adoption Strategy: achieving excellence everywhere', the department is working with Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) to develop and trial what good practice around contact looks like, with a view to setting national standards in this area. This includes investigating what support is needed for children, birth parents, and adoptive parents. RAAs are also currently trialling a new programme called ‘Letterswap', a new digital platform to improve the current ‘Letterbox’ system. The published adoption strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adoption-strategy-achieving-excellence-everywhere.