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The battle for equality for gay and lesbian parents has come on leaps and bounds in the past 20 years, but the fight still goes on

A BBC producer and his wife recently claimed they had not been allowed to adopt a British child because they were too white and too middle-class. Are they, and others like them, really victims of a huge injustice?

A couple have been prevented from fostering children after insisting on the right toismack their own daughter 'as a last resort'

A couple have been prevented from fostering after insisting on the right to smack their own daughter 'as a last resort'

The harrowing story of twins who were separated at birth and married each other without realising they were brother and sister was revealed today.

No one can begrudge Foreign Secretary David Milliband the joy of adopting a second child from America. But as a Mail investigation reveales, there's a much darker side to adopting.

Last year 3,700 children were adopted from care. Many more, desperate for a family, were disappointed – but adoption agencies have begun to look farther afield. Unmarried heterosexual and gay couples can now adopt jointly, while another small but growing part of the adoptive parent network is single people. And while it’s true that most single adopters are female, there are some men, too. David Holmes, chief executive of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), says: “It is a myth that single men can’t adopt. The number of single male adopters is small but growing. What children need most is security and stability, and in most cases this is more important than the gender of the carer. “We know that single people can do just as well as couples, and we encourage adoption agencies to think about what single men and women have to offer. The national minimum standards for adoption state that people who are interested in becoming adoptive parents will be welcomed without prejudice.” Three single men tell their story and the article gives details for the BAAF website, the BMP website and the Adoption Register website.

When the government's children's bill was in its draft stage, many paediatricians warned that it would protect children only if doctors were themselves protected from a rising tide of misinformed vilification. That bill is now an act, its drafting greatly informed by the horrors that engulfed the families of Sally Clark and Angela Cannings, who both spent years in prison after having been wrongly convicted of murdering their babies. From next April, all sudden infant deaths must be investigated according to a new, sensitive protocol that takes as its starting point the presumption of tragedy, not suspicion. This is a worthwhile legacy for the Clarks and the Cannings. The terrible irony is that it may be lost because these cases have become a smokescreen behind which the child protection system is being battered.

Documentary 'invasion' of teenager's privacy · Court halts screening after official solicitor intervenes A high court judge has stopped the BBC airing a TV programme about an 18-year-old mother with an IQ of 63 whose daughter was taken away for adoption, ruling that it would be a "massive invasion" of the woman's privacy and "undermine her dignity as a human being". Mr Justice Eady said "no rational person" could think, as the BBC had suggested, that it was in her best interests to be portrayed to the public in the light in which she was shown in the programme.

Their baby was healthy and happy, and they have not been accused of harming her, but a professional couple are fighting to get their daughter back after social workers took her away. The child was removed earlier this year at the age of just four months. Council officials claimed that she was "likely to suffer significant emotional and physical harm" because of her mother's history of mental illness. A judge who approved the decision to remove the girl from her parents, both of whom are well educated, found that the father had been "confrontational" towards social workers sent to monitor his family. Campaigners fear that it is the latest in a series of cases in which social workers appear to have broken up families without good reason. …… The British Association for Adoption and Fostering has denied that social services take children into care to be adopted unnecessarily.

These Brave, bright little lads need YOU. Dennis and Lamar are adorable, loving bundles of fun and energy, but neither had a lucky start in life. They are being cared for by wonderful foster parents, but The Sun is calling on our army of caring readers to adopt them and here we bring you their stories. The youngstes also feature on a new website - bemyparents.org.uk - created by BAAF to find families for the 4,000 uk children who need adoption each year.

Every local authority in England will have to appoint a head teacher to track academic progress of children in care under £305 million package of care reforms – a key part of Government’s new ‘Care Matters’ White Paper.

White Paper launched by Education Secretary Alan Johnson sets out a £300 million plan over four years to help the 61,000 youngsters in care. David Holmes of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering said ‘This White Paper is of vital importance’.

Campaigners have urged the governemnt to prioritise raising the leaving care age in the children in care white paper. Education secretary Alan Johnson confirmed last week that a white paper setting out reform of the care system will be published this year, following last Autumn's consultative green paper, Care Matters.

A sadistic foster mother who subjected three children in her care to horrifying physical and mental abuse over two decades was jailed for 14 years yesterday

Two sisters have finally met after living two miles apart for more than 50 years. Margaret Fiddes was given away for adoption by her mother when she was 8 weeks. Three years later her sister was born but her parents decided to tell her about Margaret’s fate. Margaret was adopted by a family living near her natural parents in Leeds. It was only after Margaret decided to track down her natural family last year that the sister she never knew she had came to light.

For the six months since his controversial adoption from an impoverished Malawi orphanage, one year old David Banda has lived a life of luxury in the London home of the material girl. Today, Madonna is expected to sweep back into the country for a reunion with the boy’s father, amid rumours she plans to adopt a second child.

The central London-based pilot Family Drug and Alcohol court aims to stop children being taken into care by putting families with drink and drug problems on rigorous support programmes

More safeguarding measures and support will be introduced to help victims of childhood sexual assault. Through the Cross Government Action Plan on Sexual Violence, the Government has outlined plans to improve education in schools and to publish guidance on the model of care for sexually abused children.

The educational achievement of looked after children is a ‘national scandal’ claims Kevin Williams, The Adolescent and Children’s Trust’s chief executive. The Government wanted the proportion of 16 year olds who get five GCSE’s at A* to C grades to rise by an average of four percentage points each year. But figures just released by the Government show that only eight per cent of children in care got five GCSE’s at grades A* to C in 2006, up just one per cent from 2005.

More than 10,000 looked after children are still living further than 20 miles from their homes according to Government figures. They show that in the year ending 31 March 2006 10,300 looked after children were living more than 29 miles from their homes with 8,100 living outside of their home council.

Last week, a Commission for Social Care inspection report showed some councils were increasingly using single place children’s homes to meet demand arising from the growing number of children with behavioural problems and other complex needs. The study said that while some councils were using the homes in a genuine attempt to meet young people’s needs for others they were a quick solution in times of crisis.

He was the apple of his grandparents’ eye, but under their loving care and continual feeding, ten-year-old Daniel reached 100kg (15st 10lb) in weight. Fearing for the boy’s health, social workers in the northern Spanish region of Asturias stepped in, taking him to a hospital where he has been put on a diet. The boy’s grandparents, Con-suelo GarcÍa and José Sánchez – who saw their daughter die of anorexia – have been distraught, unable to comprehend why their youngest grandchild has been taken away. “He was kidnapped by social workers,” said a tearful Ms GarcÍa. “Yes, he was a bit chubby, but he was never ill. That boy was fit as a fiddle.”

The number of children living in poverty jumped by 100,000 last year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said, showing that the government is not on course to meet its target of having child poverty by 2010-11.

More than 50 UK paediatricians today launch an unprecedented attack on the General Medical Council, accusing their regulatory body of deterring doctors from speaking out, and arguing that the stance could increase the risk of child abuse.

A new-style "11-plus" to assess the risk every child in Britain runs of turning to crime was among a battery of proposals unveiled in Tony Blair's crime plan yesterday.

The number of children living below the breadline rose by 100,000 last year, according to official data – a blow to Gordon Brown, who wants to halve child poverty by 2010. The increase was branded a moral disgrace by a leading children’s charity.

A growing number of children in care are being sent to “single-place” residential homes costing £6,000 a week with only staff for company.

It will be a daunting task heading the Social Care Institute for Excellence and trying to improve preventive care services. But Julie Jones tells David Brindle of her belief in research and her hopes for sparking a national debate

From next week Ofsted will increase its remit to regulate children's social care and adult learning, as well as schools. John Carvel and Lucy Ward on the challenges ahead at the new 'super-inspectorate'