The Family Support Service - support is just a phone call away

Adoption UK’s Family Support Service is often a lifeline for families who are struggling to get support or understanding for their children. In the upcoming February 2012 issue of Adoption Today magazine, Jess Hitching, Adoption UK’s Marketing Officer, looks at how the service has helped one adoptive family and how it could help you. Below is an extract from the article.

Adele and Pete's story

A sibling group of three children, Kian, Layla and Conor, (now aged nine, seven and four years old, respectively), were placed with their adoptive parents, Adele and Pete three years ago. The adoption order went through 18 months after placement.

The children were taken into care due to neglect and witnessing domestic violence in the home. Kian had often had to care for his younger siblings before being taken into care and as a consequence was very protective of them and struggled to accept Adele and Pete in a parental role. As he has got older, his issues and behaviour had escalated. Kian had begun displaying physical and verbal aggression towards his parents, particularly Adele. He was also struggling at school.

After a particularly troubling incident when Kian’s aggression escalated further, Adele contacted the Adoption UK Helpline.

Maggie, an experienced helpline advisor, recommended that Adele seek an Assessment of Needs as a matter of urgency so that the family could get their local authority Post Adoption Team on board. To help Adele with this process Maggie sent her Adoption UK’s 'Assessment of Support Needs (England and Wales)' factsheet.

Maggie also talked to Adele about the issues that Kian was having at school. Adele felt the school were trying to be supportive but were at a loss as to how to help or support Kian. Maggie sent Adele a second helpful factsheet - 'Adoptive Parents: A guide for Professionals' - that she could give to Kian’s teachers.

Maggie then went on to explain about Adoption UK’s Parent Consultant Service and Buddy Service – telephone-based sessions of personalised support for families who would like to receive a programme of one-to-one support.

Adele and Pete decided to proceed with the Family Support Service as it was designed to support families experiencing considerable difficulties. At Adele and Pete’s request, Adoption UK contacted the family’s local authority Post Adoption Team to request that it fund a unit of support.

Their Post Adoption Team agreed and Adele and Pete used their six, 45-minute telephone sessions with an Adoption UK Parent Consultant to cover issues such as Kian’s and his sibling’s life story, the impact of trauma and neglect on a child’s development, and therapeutic parenting approaches.

After receiving support from the Family Support Service, Adele and Pete reported positively on their experience:

“The helpline were fantastic and really helped me feel supported and empowered at probably the hardest point in our family life. The resources they sent were so helpful to take to school and it really helped my husband and I when we began working with Debbie, our Parent Consultant. The sessions really helped us to feel less isolated and helped get things into perspective. Now that we understand more about the impact of Kian’s early life, it has helped us to respond differently to his needs and this has already made a visible difference to his behaviour. We still have a long way to go as a family but I feel like we’re finally moving forward.”

Please note all names, including Adoption UK staff names, have been changed.

The Family Support Service film – your chance to find out more

In February, Adoption UK will launch a short film showing the Family Support Service at work. The film follows three fictional case studies, consisting of two adoptive families and a prospective adopter, and the support they received.

Marketing Officer, Jess Hitching, explains why the film was produced: “The work that the Family Support Team undertakes is vital to supporting adoptive parents and prospective adopters. Whether it’s a brief phone call to the Helpline from a prospective adopter asking about adoption pay and leave or a call from an adoptive parent who is struggling to cope, the Family Support Service is there to help. We wanted to show our members and non-members what the service does, enable them to meet the team and to see that the service is there for everyone.”

The film will be available to view in February on the Adoption UK website and will be officially launched at the joint BAAF/Adoption UK conference on 20 February 2012 by Family Support Manager, Claire Friday.

Further information

More information on the Family Support Service can be found on the Support pages of our website.
The full version of this article can be found in the February 2012 issue of Adoption Today - a bi-monthly publication available to Adoption UK members. For more information on subscribing to Adoption Today magazine, please visit the Membership pages or contact membership@adoptionuk.org.uk