1,2,3, or more? It’s LGBTQ+ Adoption & Fostering Week

LGBTQ+ people are being asked to consider brothers and sister groups this LGBTQ+ Adoption & Fostering Week

The latest estimates in England show that 4 in 10 children with a sibling are separated when placed in care. Adoption Matters is supporting this year’s campaign which is led by New Family Social, LGBTQ+ Adoption & Fostering Week starts today (6 March). It asks potential applicants to think about the number of vulnerable children they could parent or care for.

The need for more LGBTQ+ people to explore adoption and fostering is as great as ever.

In England, in 2022 there were some 82,170 looked-after children. Despite strong numbers of LGBTQ+ people adopting, the number of looked-after children grew by two per cent from the previous year. The awareness-raising week has been running since 2012, the campaign’s seen the number of adoptions in England to same-gender couples grow from 1 in 31 to 1 in 6 in 2022.

Previous analysis showed 47 per cent of same-gender couples waiting for an adoption match were more open to considering groups of brothers and sisters, compared to 36 per cent of different-gender couples.

Susy White, Adoption Matters Chief Executive said:

“We always encourage enquiries from the LGBTQ+ community and we are proud again to support this year’s campaign. Finding adopters to enable brothers and sisters to remain together is a real passion for everyone at Adoption Matters and we are proud that over a quarter of the children we placed last year were part of a sibling group. There are still so many children waiting so please contact us to find out more”.

Nearly 25% of Adoption Matters approved families in 2021-22 identified as LGBTQ+ and in the organisation was awarded commended agency status by New Family Social for their inclusivity and support.

Adopters Peter & Andrew from the North West, commented:

“We really liked Adoption Matters whole ethos basically because we’d done a whole lot of research on other adoptive agencies and we just kept coming back to Adoption Matters. It just felt right. It’s a feeling you get, you can’t really describe it”.

Adoption Matters are hosting an adoption information drop-in event at their Durham office during the week on Friday 10 March from 12 noon to 3pm, they will also be holding online adoption events following the week.  Find out more: www.adoptionmatters.org/proud

Notes

• LGBTQ+ Adoption & Fostering Week runs from 6-10 March 2023 more details at https://www.newfamilysocial.org.uk/
• Data on same-gender adoptions in the UK calculated from statistics published by each the administrations in each country. These figures undercount LGBTQ+ engagement with adoption as they focus on the composition of adoptive families; whether it is one man, one woman, one man and one woman, two men or two women. This excludes single adopters who are LGBTQ+. Also excluded are bi people in an opposite gender relationship and trans people in an opposite gender relationship.
• The Children’s Commissioner for England estimated – in the 2023 Siblings in Care report – that 4 in 10 (37 per cent) children with a sibling are separated from a sibling when placed in care. This follows BBC research in 2020 which estimated that more than half were separated in care