Independent Counselling for Birth Families

Independent counselling and information will provide birth parents and families with an overview of the legalities in Adoption and helping them to understand and come to terms with the lifelong implications Adoption entails.

Manx Care aims to ensure that birth families are offered information and counselling, where Adoption has been identified as the plan for the child.

This policy is being written in accordance with the:-

• Adoption Minimum Standards 2013 (Standard 12);
• Adoption Act 2021;
• Adoption Support Services Regulations 2024.  

Once the child’s plan of Adoption has been agreed at the Permanency and Legal Decisions Making Panel, the child’s social worker must seek consent from the birth family to make a referral to the Family Placement Service for Birth Parent support.

Once the referral is received, the Adoption Practice Lead will allocate a supervising social worker, (who has not had any involvement with the birth family) from the Family Placement Service (FPS) to support the birth family within 7 working days and will open an episode on the electronic file to document any case recordings.

The Adoption Practice Lead will inform the child’s social worker of the allocation and will request that a joint visit is undertaken with the child’s social worker and the supervising social worker to introduce them to the birth family.

The supervising social worker’s role is solely around the adoption process and helping birth family members to understand the timescales, their right to representation, Complaints Procedure and the contribution they can make for the child(ren). 

Counselling support may also be possible to help them deal with their feelings of confusion, anger, sadness, loss and grief.

Confidentiality must be maintained, unless a safeguarding issue arises and the birth family must be made aware that records of all meetings will be kept on their electronic file.

Following the joint visit, the supervising social worker will make contact with the family to arrange a further visit. If the birth family do not engage, a telephone call must be offered, followed by a letter requesting them to make contact within 7 working days.

If there is no response, the referral will be closed and the birth family will be informed in writing, inviting them to self-refer when they feel it appropriate to do so.

Birth families can self-refer at any time to the Family Placement Service to request support, advice and assistance.