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Adoption campaign reveals plight of Nation's forgotten children

Issued: 4 November 03

No one comes forward for one in five children waiting for adoption

One in five children waiting for adoption do not receive a single enquiry from a family interested in adopting them, according to a new study. The analysis has been conducted by leading adoption charity BAAF (the British Association for Adoption & Fostering). It will be presented to MPs in the House of Commons this afternoon at a reception to mark National Adoption Week, BAAF’s UK-wide campaign aiming to find families for children who need them.

The charity analysed enquiries received for the 347 children featured in the July 2003 issue of their monthly family finding newspaper Be My Parent. Of the 347 children featured there were 69 children (20%) for whom not a single enquirer came forward, although the other children featured received a total of 1346 enquiries between them.

Children far less likely to receive enquiries include African Caribbean children, boys over three years old and groups of brothers and sisters who need to stay together.

Felicity Collier, BAAF’s chief executive, said:

“These statistics shatter the myth that it is easy to find adopters for waiting children. We urgently need more people to come forward this week. We particularly need families for boys, groups of brothers and sisters and African Caribbean children.”

“Like all parenting, adoption can be hard and we need parents who can help children cope with the trauma of losing their first family. The good news is that the new adoption support measures which came into effect last week mean that adoptive parents are entitled to more support than ever before. We hope the new measures will give people the confidence to come forward. Society must not let these children down.”

Around 48,000 children in the UK are currently living with foster carers. Most of these children eventually return home to their family but for some this will not be possible and adoption may become the plan. Currently 3,200 children on the adoption register for England and Wales are waiting for families.

The children:

A total of 347 children were featured in the July 2003 issue of BAAF’s family finding newspaper Be My Parent. All the children were referred by local authority social services departments who could not identify local families to adopt them.

156 of the children needed to be placed singly in a new family and 191 needed to be placed in sibling groups along with their brothers and sisters (132 in groups of two, 51 in groups of three, 8 in groups of four)..

212 (61%) of the children were white and 135 (39%) were from minority ethnic groups including children of mixed parentage..

Of the 156 single children, 11 were aged under one, 38 were aged one or two, 37 were aged three to five, 62 were aged six to ten and eight were aged 11 to 16. 104 were boys and 52 were girls. (gender and age breakdown not available for sibling groups)

The enquiries:

1346 enquiries were received about specific children (some families made several enquiries)..

69 children (20%) received no enquiries.

Gender & age:

Enquirers were equally interested in adopting girls and boys under three years old but girls aged over three received over double the number of enquiries as boys in the same age group. (girls aged over three years old received an average of 12 enquiries each compared to an average of five enquiries for each boy aged over three years old).

Ethnicity:

African Caribbean and children of mixed parentage were far less likely to receive enquiries than white children. A third of African Caribbean children received no enquiries compared to 15% of children of mixed parentage and 6% of white children.

Sibling groups:

Children in sibling groups were nearly twice as likely to get no enquiries than children needing to be placed on their own. 25% of children needing to be placed in sibling groups received no enquiries compared to 13% of single children.

Ends

Contact:

Lucy Handford, Media Assistant, 020 7593 2054

Notes

1. The British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) is the UK’s leading adoption & fostering charity. For more information visit www.baaf.org.uk