Adopt North West (ANW) is a collaborative regional adoption recruitment project that is funded by 22 local authorities and three voluntary adoption agencies in the North West.
The North West faces a shortage of adopters for older children, siblings and those with additional needs. There are many children especially from these groups that can wait over a year after it has been decided that adoption is the best route for them.
John Daly, Bolton Council, spokesperson for Adopt North West, said: “We are keen to encourage potential adopters from the LGBT+ community to get in touch with us. With many adopters looking for babies in our experience LGBT+ adopters are much more likely to be open to taking a child from the ‘harder to place’ groups including children over 3, brothers and sisters and children with additional needs.
Children from these groups can wait longer to be placed but can bring a great deal of joy to their forever family. We understand getting in touch for the first time can be a big step but Adopt North West are available to answer any questions you might have and talk you through the process if you’d like to make an application.”
10% of adoptions in the UK in 2016 were same-sex couples and in the North West this was 13.4%.
There are currently around 130 children waiting for adoption in the North West.
♦ In the last year ANW placed children in 57 LGBT+ families in the North West
♦ ANW approved 65 LGBT+ households in the North West
♦ There are around 130 children waiting for adoption in the North West
♦ 83 of these children are waiting to be adopted with their siblings
♦ There are almost twice as many boys waiting over 12 months than girls (22 boys and 14 girls)
♦ Children over 7 are likely to wait longer to be adopted with 64% waiting over 12 months compared to 19% of under 2s
Antony from Salford adopted his son after seeing a child on breakfast TV.
He said: “Connor is such a bright and clever little boy, intelligent and engaging – people comment on that when they meet him and my father adores him. Connor had been in foster care for three years and we saw him in the matching magazine at the end of November. If he hadn’t been adopted by December he would have gone into long-term foster care. I’d advise people not to rule out older children.
I’d advise people not to rule out older children. After being in care for three years Connor is learning to adapt and do things differently. He’s got some issues with attachment. Walking to school I might say ‘You can hold my hand today but tomorrow you won’t because you’re a big boy’ – it becomes quite natural.
Being a parent is very rewarding in lots of ways and there are a lot more ups than there are downs.”
Michael and Les from Cheshire adopted their child through an independent agency.
They said: “The joys of adopting! Wow we have so many, not only becoming a family of three. We have made lots of new friends within our community. We also have a very busy social calendar now; Weekends are pretty full on! Parties, play dates etc. but the main joy has to be seeing through your own eyes, a child growing and developing in to their own individual little personality.”
To find out more about children waiting for adoption in the North West or to enquire about becoming an adoptive parent, click here:
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