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Family Connexions
About this service
Family Connexions is an independent birth family support service provided by Adoption Central England (ACE) to support birth families affected by adoption. We can work with any birth family member, including birth parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, where a child has a plan of adoption or has been adopted. The child must have been in the care of one of the local authorities within the Family Connexions region and subsequently adopted through them. The local authorities in in the ACE region are Coventry, Herefordshire, Solihull, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. If your child was adopted through a different local authority your support will be from that area and Family Connexions can help you make contact if needed. Family Connexions is a voluntary outreach service. The service recognises that it can be very difficult for birth families to talk about their experiences of adoption and will continue to be available to offer a service for when you feel ready to talk and share your feelings and experiences. A team member will try to contact you to build a relationship that will be supportive to help you to understand the decisions that have been made about your child or children who are to be adopted or who have been adopted previously. You can be seen at a place where you feel comfortable, this could be your home or somewhere in the community.
This service is available for birth families in
Coventry, Solihull, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire
Contact details
- This service is provided by ACE Central England
- https://www.aceadoption.com/resources/family-connexions#:~:text=Family%20Connexions%20is%20an%20independent,birth%20families%20affected%20by%20adoption.
- Adoption Central England (ACE), Saltisford Office Park, Ansell Way, Warwick CV34 4UL
- enquiries@aceadoption.com
- 0300 369 0556
Who is the service for?
- The child’s birth mother (or pregnant mother)
- The child’s birth father
- The child’s brothers and sisters, including half siblings and step siblings
- The child’s wider family and friends (including grandparents, aunts/uncles)
At what point in the adoption process is support available? When adoption is:
- Being considered (before court proceedings have started)
- Being planned (including during court proceedings)
- Has taken place
What support is available?
- General advice and information about adoption
- Counselling or therapeutic support
- Support groups for birth families affected by adoption
- Advice and information about contributing to a child’s life story work or life story book
- Support for contact with an adopted child, including letterbox contact (contact is sometimes described as ‘keeping in touch’ or ‘family time’)
- Support for birth family members to access adoption records and information held by children’s services or another adoption agency
Where is support available?
- In person, at a flexible location, such as your home
- In person, at a specific location
- Online, including virtual meetings or webchat
- Over the phone
How to access the service?
- Contact us directly if you want support (this is also known as self-referral)
- You will need to speak to one of the following practitioners to be referred to our service: a social worker, housing officer, GP, drug and alcohol worker, mental health support worker, probation officer, or domestic abuse support worker
How much support is available?
- The amount of support is flexible, based on how much support is needed
Key details about the service
- One-to-one support is available at this service
- This service can give support or information for family members who are under 18
- Additional support for people with disabilities, including learning difficulties and learning disabilities, is available at this service
- Confidential interpreters or translation services are available at this service
Has the service been independently evaluated, with input from family members who have used the service?
No, not at this point
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