Working to revolutionise post-adoption contact between birth parents and their children

Allowing full digital contact could make a difference to many families, campaigners tell Cherry Casey

There is a push for adopted children to have more meaningful relationships with their birth families for their emotional and mental health (Illustrations by Lena Ioannou)

In 2004, Angela Frazer-Wicks’s two young sons were placed into the care system. For years she had fought with her local authority to keep her children, but due to mental health problems and domestic violence, she lost her battle.

On saying goodbye, she promised her oldest, who was five years old, that she would write to him. Almost immediately after they were removed, however, she learned that this would not be possible; she only had the legal right to write to them – via the system known as “letterbox” – once they had been adopted, and only then if the adoptive parents allowed it.

“I was distraught,” says Frazer-Wicks, “because I knew my son would be waiting. I kept saying, ‘He’s going to think I’ve forgotten, you have to explain it to him. Say anything age-appropriate so he knows I have not forgotten him.’”