Making Adoptions from Foster-Care More Open: Shifting Professional Practice In England Using a Collaborative,Theory-of-Change Driven Practice Development Program.

Background and goals.

Maintaining birth family connections for children adopted from foster-care requires a nuanced approach to ensure any such contact is safe and meaningful. Practice in planning and supporting post-adoption contact in foster-care adoptions lags behind the research evidence about the benefits of contact. Many adoptees have only minimal or poor-quality contact with family members, creating unnecessary loss and identity challenges. This paper outlines a national program of research-driven practice development carried out in England through a partnership between adoption researchers, Adoption England (the national body supporting regional adoption agencies), professionals, and lived experience experts. The goal was to facilitate nationwide culture change in the approach to post-adoption contact to align practice more clearly with research findings.

Methods.

The key stages of this work, carried out between 2023 to 2026 included: (1) coproducing a theory of change with experts by experience, practitioners and policymakers (2) a formative evaluation of a new digital platform to enable confidential indirect post-adoption contact (3) a national training program for different professional groups involved in contact planning and support (4) producing research-informed practice guidance and tools, free to access through a website (5) establishing a national network of “champions” embedded within adoption agencies to lead culture change work (6) supporting champions through an online community of practice and (7) assessing the progress of change through surveying champions. This practice development was grounded in 30 years of empirical work focused on post-adoption contact carried out by the research team.

Results.

The theory of change has become a blueprint for reforming the approach to post-adoption contact in England and has informed the development of national standards for post-adoption contact and new guidance for courts. Thousands of professionals engaged with training delivered through regular webinars. This promoted in-depth understanding of different aspects of contact such as sibling connections, supporting birth parents, working with teenagers, trauma informed support for contact. Using this learning to drive practice changes was driven via champions workshops. The surveys of champions carried out in early 2025 and 2026 documented an increased focus on post-adoption contact in adoption agencies. Changes included establishing a dedicated team to support contact, reshaping adopter preparation including involving adoptees and birth parents, using contact assessment and planning tools. This resulted in more children being supported to maintain or re-open safe contact with birth relatives. The evaluation of the digital contact tool demonstrated the challenges and potential benefits of online contact in allowing for greater frequency of communication in formats that for some felt more natural and easier-to-use (e.g. short messages, voice notes and video messages).

Conclusions and implications.

This collaborative program of work demonstrated how culture change on a national scale can be achieved with a systematic approach to identifying risks and opportunities, and through the dedicated partnership between social work researchers, practitioners and managers, policy leaders, and lived experience experts. The need for additional resources to embed, sustain, refine and evaluate these initial changes is now a priority.