Big Adoption Day in Blackburn with Darwen

Wednesday, March 16  is national Big Adoption Day and Blackburn with Darwen Council is raising awareness of children who need their forever family.

Blackburn with Darwen Council was named as the best in the country in terms of children not able to live with their birth families leaving care and being adopted. Blackburn with Darwen performed best with 37% of children being adopted in 2014/15.

For the Big Adoption Day, the focus is on older children, sibling groups and children with additional needs who are looking for a loving, permanent home and can be more difficult to place.

People who would like more information on adoption in the borough can contact the Council’s Let’s Adopt campaign, which aims to recruit more adoptive parents to change the lives of children waiting for their forever families.

Adoption is for children who can no longer, for various reasons, live within their birth family and need a permanent, loving home and adoption procedures are started only when all other options have been exhausted.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has also joined a partnership up with other local authorities to form a single adoption agency, further helping children to find their families.

Blackburn with Darwen, Bolton Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside Councils, in partnership with Adoption Matters and Caritas Care Voluntary Adoption Agencies, have formed one of the first Regional Adoption Agencies.

This will deliver improved outcomes for children who need adoptive parents across six Local Authority areas, which means that children will be able to be placed with families across the six regions, meaning their chances of finding their family are increased.

Councillor Maureen Bateson, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Executive Member for Children’s Services, said:

The adoption team at the Council is dedicated to helping children in our care and their prospective families and improving their lives.

For those who adopt older children, siblings or children with disabilities, the challenges can seem great.

However, these are the very children most in need of a loving, supportive home – something every child deserves and needs to make the very best start in life – and it can be hugely rewarding.”

The Let’s Adopt campaign has been instrumental to our service, as it works to help find forever families for children currently in our care.”

For more information go to: http://www.letsadopt.co.uk/