Really interesting piece on Radio 4’s All In the Mind this afternoon on adoption, covering the disruptive impact on small babies of being taken to and from contact with birth parents whilst care proceedings are pending, and the sometimes catastrophic impact of unplanned contact between adopted teenagers and birth parents via facebook or the internet.

One point raised was the need to ensure that teenagers go into contact with their eyes open and with a sound understanding of the reasons they were removed from their birth family and how things might be. One good reason for bringing forward proposals made under Jack Straw’s tenure to make judgments in care and adoption proceedings available to children when they reach adulthood – given that there seems to be an increase in the number of reintroductions via social networking well before adulthood there may even be a case for making them available to adoptive parents or their supportive adoption team at an earlier stage, to be viewed as a sort of extended life story tool at a point where a child is intellectually and emotionally ready.

Interestingly the social work academic interviewed indicated that the research she had conducted showed no correlation between the frequency of contact between birth parents and small babies and their eventual return to their care.

Well worth a listen on iplayer.