Top tips
— Discuss the possibility of family support at an early stage and involve the client in negotiations where possible.
— Where a client has family they are more likely to request to be reunited with them. Where this is not the case seeking alternative support is necessary and essential.
Seeking family support won’t be appropriate in all cases, ie: where family problems exist and have been a factor in the client coming to the UK. However, it is the case that families are often willing to provide support. For some clients, knowing that family members are waiting for them when they return home can be a strong motivating factor for them to follow the reconnection process through. Therefore, it’s worth discussing the possibility of family support with clients at an early stage in the process.
Where clients are initially reluctant to seek family support, make sure that you explore with them the underlying reasons for this: it’s often the client’s own anxieties about how they will be perceived by their families rather than the families actually being unsupportive which prevents them from making contact. Once contact has been re-established, the process often becomes easier and clients become more willing to seek support.
It helps to support clients to make the initial contact. Where this is possible, encourage clients to speak to family members themselves: they are more likely to be able to better communicate in the relevant language; this also helps in re-building the relationship.
It’s also worth knowing that where clients have lost contact with their family, it’s possible to contact the local Police and to ask them to assist in tracing them.
