Can I adopt or foster a baby?

These days very few healthy white single babies need adopting in the UK, and adopters wanting to care for children like these can face a long wait of up to many years.

Families are needed for babies of all backgrounds who need to grow up with their older brothers and sisters, babies who are black or of mixed ethnicity, and babies whose future development may be uncertain. This uncertainty may be due to there being a hereditary health condition in the child’s birth family which may affect the child in later life, or it being too early to tell if the child has been affected by their birth mother’s use of drugs or alcohol during pregnancy.

Older children, especially boys over the age of seven, groups of brothers and sisters, children who are disabled or have complex care needs, and children from a black minority ethnic background, including those of mixed ethnicity, often wait the longest for a family.

Adoptive and permanent foster families are urgently needed to care for children like these.

Why not read the Be My Parent features on children with special needs, siblings, and disability?

Last updated: 09 November 07

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