GIVING BABIES IN CARE STABILITY FROM THE START
02 November 2009
Monday 2 November 2009
The children’s charity, Coram is today (Monday 2 November), calling upon local authorities and family courts to take a flexible approach on the frequency and timing of contact between birth parents and babies in concurrent planning placements during care proceedings. Research being launched at a conference by Coram this evening will demonstrate the unintended stress that high levels of contact creates for these babies and their carers.
Coram’s concurrent planning programme aims to reduce the amount of disruption to babies in care whilst going through care proceedings. Babies are placed with specialist foster carers who will go onto adopt the baby if the courts decide it is not possible for them to be returned to the birth parents. Coram is committed to supporting contact between the baby and their birth family during the process – however this often involves long commutes as regularly as five times a week which is inevitably disruptive of any routines that the baby may have.
The study by Jenny Kenrick, Honorary Consultant Child Psychotherapist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which examined the impact of regular contact on babies in concurrent planning placements during care proceedings found that children became distressed being separated from their carers. There were particular difficulties at certain stages: for newborns who were expected to commence contact immediately on placement (before becoming familiar with their carers or establishing a routine), for babies who had temporarily been in foster care and who had to establish a new routine with the concurrency carers, and also for children between five and eight months old – a crucial and formative stage in their lives when babies generally find it hard to separate from their familiar parent or carer. These difficulties continued for these babies even several years later after they were settled into their permanent families, for example they found it more difficult than other children to start playgroups and school.
Many of the babies would have already had a traumatic start in life. Their parents may have been neglectful or be wrestling with substance dependency. The research raised questions as to how long vulnerable babies need to settle into a routine with their carers before being contact is arranged.
Jeanne Kaniuk, Coram Head of Adoption, says:
“We are committed to the importance of supporting and maintaining continuing contact for babies and their birth families during care proceedings but in the light of this research we believe courts and Local Authorities should re-evaluate the impact this may have on emotionally fragile babies that need stability. The timing and frequency of contact should be carefully considered in individual cases to ensure that the parents maintain their relationship with the baby and can demonstrate their capacity to parent their child which is essential for the court assessment, whist also ensuring that the babies’ needs for stability and routine are respected.
Jenny Kenrick says: “Although there have been previous studies of the impact of contact on older looked after children, it seems important to consider the impact of intensive contact on infants. The children are always the most vulnerable in the triad of birth parent, carer and child in contact. An infant is particularly vulnerable and is at the most crucial stage in its emotional and neurological development. This study of infants, all under the age of 10 months when placed with concurrency carers, is an opportunity to consider some of their needs and how any findings may be extrapolated to the needs of infants in contact in the general care population.”
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Notes to editor
Coram works with over 10,000 vulnerable children, young people and their families every year. Its adoption service has the highest success rate in the country. (3% disruption rate against a national average of 20%) Coram concurrent planning has been running for 10 years and is the only agency in London providing the service. The charity currently works with four London Boroughs – Harrow, Camden, Islington, Hammersmith and Fulham. www.coram.org.uk
Coram will deliver a conference on Concurrent Planning at The Foundling Hospital, London on Monday 2 November at 4.30pm. Speakers include Jenny Kenrick, Danya Glaser, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at GOSH, Judge Lesley Newton from Manchester County Court and Margaret Adcock, social worker consultant to the concurrent planning projects in the UK.
The full study by Jenny Kenrick will be published in the January 2010 in Adoption and Fostering (a British Association of Adoption and Fostering title) www.baaf.org.uk
