Maintaining Relationships Webinars and Videos

The videos are designed to help professionals and prospective adopters better understand the importance of maintaining contact for adoptees with their birth families or significant others. They can be used in training sessions, reflective individual or group supervision, or assessment meetings.

These webinar clips are part of a series of 15 webinars produced by Adoption England and the University of East Anglia as part of the culture change programme. Permissions have been obtained from all contributors; however, due to the sensitive nature of the information shared, we kindly request that these videos are not shared on social media or other agencies’ websites.

We would like to thank all the contributors to the series. Their stories highlight the vital importance of maintaining relationships for adoptees and will play a key role in reinforcing this crucial message.

There are widespread calls for a new approach to adoption that places greater emphasis on maintaining children’s relationships with their family members and other people who have been important in their lives. This became one of our key priorities at Adoption England, aligning with the recommendations of the Public Law Working Group on adoption. To support this, we worked with Prof. Beth Neil from the University of East Anglia, who delivered a series of three webinars for Principal Social Workers. These sessions provided an overview of the Public Law Working Group’s recommendations and highlighted how Principal Social Workers could lead the way in driving change within local authorities to prioritise and preserve these vital relationships.