Support for sibling contact makes future connection between siblings more likely

New research has been published on contact between siblings who have been separated in the care system, showing that offering a supportive environment for siblings to reconnect, is believed to make future contact between the siblings more likely.

Developed by children’s charity Coram and funded by the Hadley Trust, the Sibling Time event was piloted in Leicestershire in early August 2023. The model aimed to respond to the desire reported by children in care themselves to stay in contact with siblings, informed by previous research by the Children’s Commissioner in 2023 which found that good quality sibling contact is associated with positive wellbeing outcomes for children.

The pilot event was attended by ten children and 11 parents/carers, and aimed to offer a fun, supportive, therapeutic and safe environment for children who are adopted or in care to have meaningful contact with their siblings from whom they had been separated. The three-hour session was facilitated by nine professionals including staff from Coram’s Activity Days team, social workers and play specialists. The focus of the session was child-led free play with supported activities. During the session, parents and carers were offered training around various topics such as supporting sibling contact and life story work.

The evaluation of Sibling Time, carried out by Coram’s own Impact and Evaluation team, featured observation of the intervention; interviews with social workers, play professionals, parents/carers and children/young people; and analysis of feedback forms.

The findings of the research indicate that the service showed significant signs of promise. Siblings who attended the event interacted enthusiastically with one another, even in the case of those with a large age disparity, including a toddler and teenager sibling group.

All the children reported that they enjoyed the session. In the interviews, children expressed that they would be keen to see their siblings again in the future.

“When [adopted child] is older, I want to be able to say that we continued that contact with [their] birth sibling […] we’re really conscious that it’s important for [their] own identity and understanding of where [they have] come from,” one parent said, following the event.

The setting was seen as particularly important. The presence of social workers on-site helped to set boundaries and reassure parents. Some parents were concerned about the potential emotional fallout but felt that the preparation and carefully curated setting mitigated this.

“The venue is massively important to the feeling. If a child walks into the venue and instantly feels safe, then the sky's the limit,” one professional said.

Parents felt the event made future sibling connections more likely and expressed a desire for more Sibling Time events to be held.

“Previous research has shown that contact between siblings who have been separated in the care system is associated with positive wellbeing outcomes for children, but only when it is well-managed,” Max Stanford, Head of Impact and Evaluation at Coram, said. “Sibling Time shows signs of significant promise in helping local authorities to support meaningful contact between separated siblings, offering them the opportunity to build strong relationships and emotional connections.”