Recently, I was asked the question that is the title of this post. The context in which I was asked aligned with my view that this is an important topic for me to share my views on. Just a disclaimer; this is my opinion based on thirty years working directly with children and young people who could not safely be cared for at home, and adult stakeholders in their life. I have included the video, below, and a transcript if you prefer to read it.

Video:

Transcript:

In a recent conversation I was asked for my views about late-stage reunification. Now these are reunifications that typically occur during the teen years and when a young person has not been able to form deep and lasting connection within the out-of-home care system, or when they’ve initiated reunification with a birth parent or birth parents themselves.

Now let me be very clear about this.

This eventuality represents a failure of the out-of-home care system to provide and support deep, meaningful, and lasting connection for our children and young people who could not safely be cared for at home by their mum and or their dad. Let me also be clear that these eventualities point us to the enduring importance that mum and dad play in the lives of our children and young people, even though they may not have been able to live with them.

Late-stage reunification is not just a matter of convenience. It is a professional responsibility to ensure that our young people have at least a chance of maintaining long-term connections, including with their birth parents and within their birth families. There is also a duty of care to ensure that these reunifications and even reconnections occur at a time when the young person has our support. We should not leave it up to the young people themselves to manage reconnection and reunification post-18 and without the professional support that is available to them prior to them turning 18 years of age.

So do I support late-stage reunification? I certainly do in most instances. What about the risks you might ask? Well the risks just need to be managed as part of our professional responsibility and duty of care and I would make this final point. The risks associated with our young people transitioning from care without any deep meaningful and lasting connections include serious, sometimes lifelong disturbance in their emotions, their behaviours and their capacity to build and maintain mutually satisfying relationships.