1. Jo-Ann Swanston-King After Adoption – Families that Last
Assessing personal support networks and monitoring personal support post approval
Jo-Ann Swanston-King
After Adoption – Families that Last

2. Background
The AAR (2005) 25(2) and Schedule 4 PART 1(19) places a requirement on the adoption agency to obtain information about the prospective adopters wider family, their role and importance to the prospective adopters and their likely role and importance to a child placed for adoption with the prospective adopter. There is very little in regulation and statutory guidance around the assessment of personal support networks although the PAR assessment has a significant focus on the robustness and accessibility of these networks for all prospective adopters.
There is very little guidance around the assessment of support networks when looking at suitability to adopt.
Agencies are left to determine how support networks and the quality of these are assessed.
Regulation and guidance tend to focus on professional adoption support services post placement but there is little about personal support networks and how these can be assessed and strengthened prior to approval and in the early days of placement.

3. Adoption Support Regulations
Talks about the importance of adoption support post placement.
Recognises the ongoing pressures and demands of adoption placements on families.
Requires access to an assessment of adoption support needs for families
Recognises the importance of families knowing what support is available to them within their own agencies and through other services such as health, education, etc post placement.
There is focus on therapeutic support with the introduction of the ASF.
Does not focus on personal support or looking at this in assessment of early placement?
The Adoption Support Fund (ASF) was introduced by the Government in 2013, and was available to all LAs in England from the 1st May The aim of the fund is to provide financial assistance to adoptive families that require therapeutic support.
VAA’s have a proven history of approving prospective adopters for children who are “harder to place” and who often present with complex issues due to past trauma.
There is therefore a higher need for therapeutic intervention and higher levels of support required to maintain the placements of children with VAA adopters. This can be further exacerbated by the complexities that adopters bring from their personal experiences and histories.
What can agencies do earlier on in the process to assess and strengthen personal support networks?

4. Gathering information and assess the quality of support in assessment?
Stat checks and references
There are a number of tools used to gather evidence of support– Ecomaps, family trees, genograms and social network maps to help explore family functioning and the networks of P.A’s.
Identifying people who know the P.A’s well – Also assessing how well the prospective adopters know their friends/support? Assessing the quality, strength and significance of the relationship.
Strength of relationships, have they observed P.A’s under stress pressure? have they accessed support from their family/friends in the past and under what circumstances? How likely are they to be able to identify and access their friends and family for support?
The assessment should normalise support from the onset and promote P.A’s to think about their support networks and how they can build on these where necessary.
The assessment of support should focus on strengthening families rather than accessing support being seen as a weakness in parenting capacity

5. Support Network
Identify at an early stage who forms part of the support network:
Partners
Other household members – think about diverse family structures i.e. families who live in multi generational households
Extended family outside of the home
Friends
Professional networks of support
Partners – How do they function as a couple? What have been stressful events in their relationship and how have they dealt with this?
Other household members – don’t automatically focus on the challenges of family structures that don’t meet the “traditional” British family structures– start from a strength based perspective. These are families who generally are very accustomed to living together and managing relationships and setting boundaries around these. Assess what experience the family have of doing this and outline examples/existing skills and experiences in the PAR.
Preparing/training for panel members in regards to diverse family structures.
Professionals within the network – do P.A have professionals within their personal networks that can support them in their thinking and understanding of the needs of children.

6. Support Network Identifying strengths and any gaps in support:
Assessments should identify and assess the strengths in any support network but should also identify any gaps and how these might be supported and by whom.
Can P.A be open about their vulnerabilities and any gaps in their support networks? How do we test this?
Practice Development - How do we “test” the robustness of support networks? Tools that maybe useful?
Use of case studies/scenarios that test the robustness of identified support but also how P.A’s can easily access support
This agency is looking at how we develop practice tools within assessment that will support with identifying strengths/gaps.

7. Case Study After Adoption Case Study (2011):
Single parent adopter with one male birth child aged 10 years old.
Single female child placed aged 4 years old.
Approved March 2011, linked July 2011 and placement occurred in Sept 2011
Placement disrupted Nov 2011
P.A’s mother, brother and sis-in law identified as local and key support.
P.A’s mother lived 5 mins walk away and had daily contact with her daughter, experienced, retired foster carer.
Concerns were expressed early on in placement by P.A with threats to disrupt placement on a number of occasions
Other useful information - Prescribed 3 short courses of anti-depressants 10 years previously. Had taken an overdoes during this time. She was referred for counselling in March 2001 but did not attend.
A wide range of personal references sought and interviews with family and friends took place – no concerns identified about her personality or her support networks that caused concern about her capacity to access support.

8. Internal Disruption Review
Support networks were not consulted/approached at point of concerns being expressed by P.A.
Meaningful relationships had not been built between the agency and the main sources of support during assessment or pre placement
People in the support network can be useful in helping to understand what is going on early in placement
The Review identified it may have been useful to have had earlier discussions following placement with PA’s support network, particularly her mum who had been heavily involved with the family following placement and who knew daughter and grandson well.
If relationships had been established, communication with those who knew P.A may have assisted with supporting the placement better and the agency being aware the depth of the problem earlier.
Recognition that Family/friends know the P.A’s better than the agency and are more likely to “pick up” concerns around behaviour, etc
It is important that those who have provided personal references and/or form part of the support network are viewed as a source of analysis following placement. As they are often an invaluable resource and can make important contributions to understanding what is happening within placements as they often know the adopter better than the professionals who are involved.

9. After Adoption (AA)- Families That Last (FTL) approach
Rushton & Monck, 2009 identified that :
‘There is a need to understand the specific problems of adopted children, how to manage behavioural difficulties and how to encourage commitment to the child, especially when the child is unrewarding or has a weak or distorted attachment’
This is important for the people in the support networks as well as P.A’s. How can we then strengthen our families through their personal support?
As agencies we generally carry higher levels of risk due to the nature of the children placed with our families and the growing complexities of families being assessed, this means that our systems and practices needs to be robust enough to assess, review and manage this risk.

10. How do we Prepare Family & Friends? AA-FTL approach
Family and friends training (involves a family member speaker) – 1 day training course
Post approval and prior to placement Family and friends agreements completed based on matched child
The above both encourage the establishing of a working relationship between the agency and the support network of the family
Family and friends training can take place at any point during stages 1 or 2 of the assessment process. As many members of the support network can attend but those who are expected to be main sources of support are advised to attend.
Training of F & f helps them to start to understand the needs of adopted children and the parenting styles required. Puts them on same page as P.A’s and reduces the chance of conflict.
Family and Friends agreement help to focus on the needs of the child/ren to be placed and the capacity of the adopters to meet these needs and where they would benefit from support in the early days of placement. This can involve family and friends identifying simple tasks that they can so to support the family such as washing/ironing, meal preparation, dog walking, emotional support/time out for adopters, etc
The agreement being completed with the P.A’s and their F&F provides an open arena for discussion and volunteering and doesn’t place the onus on the PA to have to ask for support whilst in crisis
Telephone numbers for the agency social worker is given to F&F and they are also able to provide their contact details to the agency. This promotes a basis for a working relationship that encourages dialogue as well as support.
Family and friends agreements are particularly useful with complex placements e.g, large sibling groups. Helps to break down tasks and identify who can support with specific practical , emotional tasks, back-up carers, etc. Promotes an open dialogue between P.A’s and their friends and family about potential support needs.
Acknowledges to the support network the importance of their role not only in the assessment stage but right throughout the process through to placement and beyond.

11. Monitoring and reviewing support needs – AA-FTL approach
Monthly Adoption support planning and review meetings.
Personal support networks would never replace the need for therapeutic support.
At point of link being agreed support needs are reviewed based on what we know about the adopters from assessment and what we have learnt about the child’s need.
Adoption Buddies are made available to adopters as well as their support networks where possible.
Family and Friend support agreements should be periodically reviewed by the agency social worker, the P.A’s and Family and Friends involved.
Meetings track families through assessment (from stage 2) – update given to adoption support service about potential support needs and strengths identified in assessment. This helps the agency to understand the support needs and any gaps. This in turn can inform the F&F agreement.
For families where intensive support is expected an intensive support plan can be drawn up within the meeting and any support needs flagged with the placing LA as soon as possible in order to inform any LA adoption support plan.
The agency recognises the challenges that members of the support network may face supporting a placement and can offer access to Adoption buddies who have been in a similar position.
Review date should be set to review F&F agreements to ensure that support remains relevant and changing support needs are met.

12. Questions