Life Story Books Guidance

1. What is a Life Story Book?

All children with a plan for adoption must have a Life Story Book.

The child's social worker needs to begin to plan the child's life story as soon as possible and should be considered as soon as a placement is being considered when they enter into care and when an adoption plan is agreed. Whether or not the plan later becomes adoption, the child will benefit from the information being gathered together.

Where the child is not ready, information must be gathered for the child later in life. Missed or inadequate information can lead to disruptions or gaps for the child and carers.

Making a Life Story Book is more than creating a photograph album with identifying sentences giving dates, places and names. It is an account of a child's life in words, pictures and documents, and an opportunity to explore emotions through play, conversation and counselling.

A Life Story Book should:

• Keep as full a chronological record as possible of a child's life;
• Integrate the past into the future so that childhood makes sense;
• Provide a basis on which a continuing Life Story can be added to;
• Be something the child can return to when they need to deal with old feelings and clarify and/or accept the past;
• Increase a child's sense of self and self-worth;
• Provide a structure for talking to children about painful issues;
• Be checked by someone other than the author to ensure that it is easy to understand.

Tower Hamlets Life Story Books are influenced by the Joy Rees (2009) model. The aim of this model is to reinforce the child's sense of self, belonging and security within their permanent family. With this in mind, it is important that permanent carers feel comfortable with the contents of the book and confident in sharing it with their child. To achieve this it is essential to work together with permanent carers. This enhances the book's capacity to build attachments and helps children develop a more helpful understanding of their story.

Tower Hamlets Life Story Books are written in three parts:

• Part 1 focuses on the PRESENT - the child in their permanent home;
• Part 2 focuses on the PAST - the child's birth; the story of the reason the child became looked after and how the permanent carers came to be;
• Part 3 revisits the PRESENT & moves to the FUTURE.

2. Why do Life Story Work?

Children who live with their birth families have the opportunity to know about their past and to clarify past events in terms of the present. Children separated from their birth families are often denied this opportunity; they may have changed families, social workers, homes and neighbourhoods. Their past may be lost, much of it even forgotten.

When children lose track of their past, they may well find it difficult to develop emotionally and socially. If adults cannot or do not discuss this past with them, it can be confusing for children, who may then assume that it may be bad.

Life Story Work is an attempt to give back some of this past to children separated from their family of origin. Gathering together facts about that life and the significant people in it helps them begin to understand their past and present, and go forward into the future with this knowledge. Most children separated in this way gain a great deal from talking about their past, present and future to a sympathetic adult. Life Story Work provides a structure for talking to children, and for helping them to understand their present situation (e.g. adoption).

Children separated from their birth parents need to understand why the separation occurred and why various adults have been unable to care for them. As Corporate Parents, we need to ensure that all children we are responsible for are supported to understand their life story.

All children are entitled to an accurate knowledge of their past and their family. This is a right that children who are secure in their families take for granted. For those children separated from their birth families, the right to this knowledge is equally important, not only for the sake of the children themselves, but also for their future children.

3. Who Should Write the Life Story Book?

The process should be initiated, driven and coordinated by the child's allocated social worker. Although it is the responsibility of the child's social worker to put the book together, if requested and agreed, parts 1 and 3 of the book can be written by a life story social worker. To request this support, the child's social worker will need to make a referral to the Permanency and Adoption Support Team 2 manager. Even with the input of a life story social worker, the child's social worker will have overall responsibility for ensuring this work is completed.

A Life Story Book must always be created by a competent and skilled person who has time to plan and complete the work. The decision as to who should carry out this work is the responsibility of the children's team manager. If delegated, for example, to a student social worker, all aspects of the work should be closely supervised by the child's allocated social worker.

4. Resources for Life Story Books

Gathering information for Life Story Books can be the most time consuming task of putting a Life Story Book together. See Local Resources for some helpful books and resources.

5. Where can I get Support?

• Team support
  Children's team managers will offer support to social workers during supervision;
• Life story social work support
  The life story social worker (ext. 5225) is experienced in creating Life Story Books and working together with a range of people to achieve this. Contact this worker for consultation, advice and support on any life story issue;
• Technical support
  In addition to the above the Resources 'family finding co-ordinator' (ext. 5432) can help you with the graphics in the books, so there is no need to concentrate on getting this right; however, where possible place your photos/images/requests on the desired pages and do not significantly change template pages as this can interfere with the carefully structured narrative and take time to rework;
• Training & support
  The life story social worker offers internal training and support sessions around life story work. To book your place on 'Direct Skills for Life Story'
  training log in to the HR self-service system and request training through the Learning Hub. Life story support sessions can be offered to individuals, groups or teams. Contact the life story social worker (ext. 5225) to arrange this.

7. Children who are Adopted

Where there is an adoption plan for a Looked After Child, life story work should be part of the preparation of the child for the adoptive placement. Further details are set out in the Placement for Adoption Procedure, Preparation of Child for Adoption.

The Life Story Book will usually be handed to the adoptive parents, together with the *Later Life Letter, within 10 working days of the adoption ceremony, i.e. the ceremony to celebrate the making of the adoption order.

*Please note, the child's social worker is responsible for completing the Later Life Letter.

8. Where do I Save Life Story Books and Information?

When recording life story related work, do so in Case Notes on Frameworki where you should use the drop down menu Life Story or in the case of adoption Life Story (adoption file). For more information, see Local Resources.

All interim drafts of life story books are to be saved on your M drive in clearly labelled files.

When you have finished your child's life story book save each section (part 1, 2 & 3) as a PDF and then upload these on Frameworki in Documents. There should also be a case note relating to where you have saved the book. Books, photos, drawings etc. relating to life story work should also be saved in Documents.

9. Quality Assurance

We want our children to receive the best Life Story Books as they will remain with children for years beyond our roles in Tower Hamlets. It is good practice to ask somebody who knows the child well (usually their carer or adoptive parent, a life story social worker, team manager or colleague) to proofread the book before it is printed. This helps to ensure you have pitched the language and content at the right level before sharing the finished book with the child.

10. How do I Print the Life Story Book?

Once you are happy with your Life Story Book and saved each section as a PDF, contact LBTH Reprographics (ext. 2898). Send all your attachments via email to the appropriate person in reprographics together with your teams cost code for printing.

For the finishing touches to the book please contact the Resources 'family finding co-ordinator' (ext. 5432)

References: Life Story Books for Adopted Children: A Family Friendly Approach – Joy Rees (2009)