Press releases

Hopeful parents flock to online adoption service

Issued: 18 September 2008

Thousands of prospective mums and dads are flocking to a website that helps match them with children waiting for adoption and permanent fostering.

The award winning Be My Parent website received 2500 subscribers to their family finding service last year¹. As a result a number of children will be placed with new families.

The success of the service is announced this week in the British Association for Adoption & Fostering’s (BAAF) Annual Review. Its success is matched by the Adoption Register for England and Wales, which the charity has been running on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families for the past three years. The Adoption Register’s own Annual Report reveals that 199 children were matched with families last year, the highest yearly number to date. This means the Adoption Register has a total of 456 children matched with families between 2005 and 2007.

The report reveals that last year:

• 85% of the children were matched with heterosexual couples
• 13% were matched with single adopters
• 2% were matched with same sex couples
• 54% of the children were girls, and 46% were boys
• 49% were in a sibling group

Mo O’Reilly, Director of Child Placement Services at BAAF said: “It’s been a great year for BAAF’s family finding services. We are pleased that both parents and social workers are embracing these new services. However, we cannot rest on our laurels. There are still lots of children waiting and we must find new ways to find them the right families.”

Other achievements for BAAF this year include:

• 43,000 books on adoption and fostering sold
• 2000 days of training delivered to professionals
• 8000 enquiries about adoption and fostering handled
• 18 consultation documents responded to
• 645,000 visits to the BAAF website

Be My Parent online can be found at www.bemyparent.org.uk

Notes to editors:

1. Period covers April 2007 to March 2008
2. or more information please call BAAF press office on 020 7421 2632/3 or email esther.freeman@baaf.org.uk. For out of hours enquiries, call the press office mobile on 07767 444 589.