Social workers see contact as being most needed by children who are older at placement and who have a pre-existing emotional relationship with a birth relative. Relatives of relinquished infants are less likely to be offered contact and more likely to decline such contact. Their mean age at placement is 14 months. These children, on average, were placed at age 22 months. The case histories of children having contact are largely comparable to those of children adopted for similar reasons who do not have contact.
Factors making face to face contact more likely Placing agency is positive about contact.
Some agencies arrange for as many as 1 in 3 children to have face to face contact while other agencies very rarely or never arrange such contact. Child is adopted by foster carers. 1 in 7 of children having face to face contact have been adopted by their foster carers. Child is placed with an older sibling thought to need contact. Twice as many see their mother as their father.