Spread your payments for this product by choosing the PayPal 'Pay Later' option on our payment checkout page. Pay in three monthly payments, interest-free. “I think it’s important to hear personal experiences” – Cassie, keynote speaker and adopted person
The conference keynote and workshops are also available as individual recordings to order and keep as a resource here: Training Resources | Family Futures
Watch a lively day of discussion and learning about how to support contact with birth relatives for children in adoption, fostering and kinship care. We’d love to hear your feedback too and you can get in touch with Family Futures or any of our speakers by contacting us here.
The aims of the conference were:
- to share the experience of what works well in contact, from the perspectives of the child, young person, birth family and adoptive parents/carers
- to provide a framework and practical advice on how contact can be managed, supported and improved, so that the needs of the child remain at the centre of the process
- to explore the importance of contact in child development
- to navigate fears around contact and complex relationships.
Our speakers
The one-day, online conference programme gives prominence to the perspectives and insights of children/young people and families including birth parents, adopters and carers.
Our expert Family Futures speakers offer guidance on how to support and improve contact, from 25 years’ experience of working with families to help maintain vital relationships.
Click here to meet the speakers and workshop leaders and to hear our conference podcasts
Who are the speakers?
Meet the speakers video playlist
Watch a sneak peak of the virtual conference venue here and listen to our podcasts below.
This very special episode of The Family Futures Podcast, Contact in Context, our Experience was recorded live at our 25th anniversary conference, Contact in Context.
The discussion is facilitated by Sue Hughes, Assessment Services & Permanency Director at Family Futures. Our expert by experience guests: Alison (adoptive parent), Daniel (Adoptee), Helen (adoptive parent), Julia (adoptee), Matt (adoptive parent) and Michelle (special guardian), reflect on their experience of contact with birth family members, respond to questions from our virtual audience and reflect on the morning’s talks.
Learning outcomes
The conference will enable you to:
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increase your knowledge of how to support and improve meaningful contact arrangements at each stage of a child’s development – integrating different aspects of a child/young person’s identity
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feel confident to navigate the benefits and challenges contact presents
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understand the purpose of contact and its significance in shaping a child’s sense of safety, their attachments and identity
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understand the experiences of all parties and the frameworks that support this vital aspect of care.
Read more about the speakers in the Conference Programme below.
You can also download the conference programme here.
A Good Practice Guide – Contact for children who are fostered, in special guardianship/kinship care placements or adopted: Family Futures Framework © Family Futures 2023, October 2023, is available free of charge to all conference attendees.
Conference programme09:00-09:30 – Register/Create profiles/Network
09:30-09:40 – Introduction by Alan Burnell OBE and Jay Vaughan MBE (co-founders of Family Futures)
25 years of Family Futures exploring the use of contact as a therapeutic intervention
This introduction to the Family Futures’ 25 year conference will briefly outline our learning from supporting families with contact over the years and considerations for achieving the best outcomes for children and young people.
09:40-10:30 – Keynote
Dee and Cassie
Dee is an adoptive mother who is also an adult integrative arts psychotherapist and has worked for many years at Family Futures. Dee and her daughter Cassie, an adopted young adult, will talk about their experiences of adoption and the role that contact has played, highlighting both the challenges, the benefits and what has helped along the way.
10:30-11:00 Break/Networking
11:00-11:45 – Family Futures framework for Facilitated Contact by Sue Hughes
Sue Hughes is an experienced social worker and integrative arts child psychotherapist at Family Futures who is a well-known trainer and consultant in this field.
Sue will outline the meaning of Facilitated contact and explore one family’s experience of the Family Futures approach through interviews with an adoptee, her adoptive parents and her birth mother.
11:45-12:30 – Group discussion and live podcast facilitated by Sue Hughes
Join us a special live recording of the Family Futures podcast. The Contact in Context conference and Family Futures podcast share the goal of amplifying, educating, and informing.
During this episode, the our expert by experience panel, consisting of Alison, Daniel, Helen, Julia, Michelle, and Matt, will reflect on the morning’s keynote speeches and respond to questions from our virtual audience. Sue Hughes will facilitate this unique discussion, which will be recorded live.
After the conference, the podcast episode will be available for streaming on The Family Futures Podcast. You can find the full program for the day on our website.
12:30-13:30 Lunch break/Networking
13:30-14:30 Workshop session 1 (Choose from Workshops 1-4)
14:30-15:00 Break/Networking
15:00-16:00 Workshop session 2 (Choose from Workshops 1-4)
Workshop One: Sibling Facilitated Contact
This workshop will be presented by Julia, an adopted young person, and Jay Vaughan MBE, Clinical lead, with Karlien Smith-Claassens, Senior Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist from Family Futures.
The workshop will begin with Julia talking about her experience of sibling contact that was facilitated as part of her life story work and how life story and contact went hand in hand. Julia will also give an update on her ongoing relationship with her siblings and how this has supported her own sense of identity and her place in the world.
Jay will also discuss the role of the therapist in this process and how sibling contact needs to be facilitated and supported.
Main themes and discussion points:
- The pre-existing relationships between siblings and the impact of abuse on sibling relationships, such as scapegoating and parentification, and how to address this in the preparation for contact
- Supporting the other siblings and their needs and how to meet them
- Preparation of siblings during the contact process
- Facilitation of the sibling contact
- Follow up
There will also be an opportunity for questions and discussion.
Workshop Two – Facilitating contact between birth parents and children – a practical framework for contact
This workshop will be presented by Sue Hughes, a Social Worker and Integrative Arts Psychotherapist, and Stephen Mulley, OT and Dance Movement Therapist at Family Futures.
Sue Hughes will begin the presentation with a short, shared activity. She will then move on to talk about the research into what makes good contact and how to provide a developmental framework for facilitating ‘good contact’, that is meaningful for children and young people contact, in the context of trauma, and how key this is for identity building and the long-term mental health of the child and young person
Sue will talk about the role of the therapists in this process, share tools and approaches that are used and how the re-connection and the facilitated contact are supported.
Main themes and discussion points :
- The preparation of all parties for reunion and contact
- The facilitation of the reunion and contact
- Follow up post the contact and therapeutic support
There will also be an opportunity for questions and discussion.
Workshop Three – How to respond when children make contact online without their adoptive parents/carers prior knowledge.
This workshop will be presented by Alison, an adoptive parent and GP, along with Alan Burnell OBE, co-founder of Family Futures, and Michael Kerman, Child Psychotherapist at Family Futures.
The workshop will begin with Alison talking about her family’s recent experience of her daughter making contact online with both of her birth parents, without Alison’s prior knowledge, and how she and her husband with the help of professionals managed to unscramble the situation.
Alan Burnell and Michael will then talk about the role of the therapist or social worker in managing this complex situation.
Main themes and discussion points:
- when there is no time for life story work before contact to put the relationships in context
- how to gain the positive participation of all parties
- the facilitation of the reunion and contact
- follow up post the contact, and therapeutic support
There will also be an opportunity for questions and discussion.
Workshop Four – Contact in Kinship Care
This workshop will be presented by Geoff Hudson, Social Worker at Family Futures, with an interview with Michelle Hall, a special guardian, speaking about her research in this area, her experience of contact, and the challenges involved.
Geoff Hudson will talk about the value of ongoing contact with birth parents where there is no framework and no facilitation. He will reflect upon what, with hindsight, might have been helpful had there been some intervention to facilitate the contact. Geoff will also talk about how the lessons learned from facilitated contact in adoption can be applied to kinship care and fostering in general, with the principle of contact meeting the developmental needs of the child remaining paramount.
Main themes and discussion points:
- The quality of the relationship between the carers and the birth parent
- Addressing any feelings of guilt, responsibility or anger because of the child’s early experiences
- Addressing different narratives that the child may hold, or variations in the narrative between birth parents and kinship carers about the child’s early experiences and relationships
- Achieving clarity about the objectives of contact for the child
- Thinking about support available in the system for both the carer and birth parent
16:05-16:30 – Pulling it all together underlining the key issues, as Family Futures sees them, that surround contact arrangements – by Jay Vaughan MBE
- the need for facilitated contact in any context
- contact as an integral part of therapeutic life story work
- the primary aim of contact is to help the developmental needs of the child by increasing their sense of safety, reducing their self blame and sense of responsibility for what has gone on in the past, strengthening their attachments to their primary carers and helping them to develop a positive sense of identity that is integrated and real
- creating a contact process that changes and adapts at different developmental stages but is always supported
- all participants need support so that contact can be a positive experience for all concerned
Closing Q&A
Do I need to register to attend Family Futures Contact in Context conference?
Yes, once you have booked your place you will need to register on our conference platform vFairs before the event to enjoy all of the virtual event features. Your unique login details to access the online event will be sent to you just before the 20th October 2023. Please note there will only be one login per email address.
Is there a cost to attend?
Yes, please go to Contact in Context Conference 2023 | Family Futures for more information
Is there an option to attend in person?
No, this conference is 100% virtual
Will there be any networking opportunities?
Yes, there will be round tables in the lounge which you can join. In the panel discussion and workshops you will also have the opportunity to ask questions.
The timings of the live sessions are not convenient for me. Can I still participate in the event?
All sessions will be recorded and you will have access to these recordings for 90 days. Therefore, you can attend whenever it’s convenient for you during this period of time. And you can attend sessions you didn’t attend live.
Do I need to download or install any software to be able to attend this event?
No, you do not need to download or install any software to participate in our conference. You only need to have access to the Internet. The event is accessible from desktop, mobile and tablet devices.
Will I be able to take away any documents or files from the event?
Yes. Like any physical event, we will have a Cart for you! You can add all of the documents available to the online Cart in your account and then email them to yourself or share items with colleagues and friends by simply entering their email.
Can I invite others to attend the event?
Absolutely. We are counting on you to invite others! Help us spread the word. You can simply share the link to this page and they can register at their convenience.
Professional delegate (standard rate): £125
Group booking with 10% discount for 5 or more places: £112.50. Enter code CONF10 when you check out to apply the discount.
Parent/carer delegate: £90
We would like to encourage as many people as possible from diverse backgrounds and with different life experiences to attend this conference and join in the discussion. If you are self-funding and would like to discuss a concession ticket to enable you to attend, please email Tamsyn, Learning and Development Partner, to discuss.
Cancellation policy
If cancelled by 19 August 2023: full ticket fee minus £25 admin fee.
If cancelled between 20 August and 19 September: 50% ticket fee minus £25 admin fee.
If cancelled on 20 September onwards: no refund will be given.
Group bookings cannot be cancelled but places can be transferred up until the 19th of September.
