number has dropped to just under 3000 children. adoption uk describes it as a tragedy. jeremy cooke reports. shall we go to the park? yeah! adoption changes children s lives. just gets funnier, cuter. it rewrites their futures. 0ur role is really important in getting those children a forever family. but adoption numbers have fallen dramatically. we need to be doing much more| to find homes for these children. when adoption goes well, it can look like this. sibling groups can be among the growing number of kids classed as hard to place. but kara and gordon were up for it. i think both of us felt a bond with them and they were our children. that s me there and that s lucas, and that s daddy. and that s fay in the pushchair. the kids arrived eight years ago. they know their history. there are no secrets. it s when you have a family and sometimes you get taken away
got a lot of stability in terms of their homes and their finances. across the room, sophie and jenny, working to recruit parents looking for the perfect match adoption a last but necessary resort. 0ur role is really important in getting those children a forever family and moving out and giving them much better life chances than what they would do as a looked after child in the local authority care. ok, so let me help you, darling. of course, every family faces challenges, but children who are adopted have experienced trauma. and that can start even before they re born. they ve got all this trauma that s been caused by these various different events which has impacted on them, without a shadow of a doubt. for children who ve lived through it, trauma has consequences and memories. you don t get fed at all. you get dirty nappies all the time. you just have a bad house and then you ve got to live with that, for me, it was two years.
because sometimes they are mean or something and then you get to move into a different family. it is hard to think that for lucas this could have been his last chance to be adopted. if we hadn t adopted him i think he was going into long term foster care. yeah, yeah. i think that was kind of the next plan. only three and a half. heartbreaking, isn t it? there s no shortage of parents ready to take on newborn babies. the problem is with the other kids. we still can t find families for those children who we know need adoption and are waiting longer. and those are the children that are older, part of sibling groups, children from black heritage, and with additional complex health needs. adoption agencies like west yorkshire 0ne are vital to make the system work. chloe is a family finder. every one of her computer profiles is a child that she s come to know and to care about. this one says a is a happy baby, always has a smile to share.