Diagrama FoundationThis year’s LGBTQ+ Fostering and Adoption week brings together the UK’s adoption and fostering agencies to raise awareness of the vital need for people within the LGBTQ+ community to consider adopting or fostering under the theme ‘1,2,3 or more’.
The week, which is run by New Family Social, and in its eleventh year, remains the only campaign to focus on LGBTQ+ people. LGBTQ+ people now account for the second largest group of adopters in England, with 1 in 6 adoptions in 2022 to same sex couples.
The campaign theme, ‘1,2,3 or more’, reflects research showing that over half of sibling groups are split up in care and over 12,000 children are not living with at least one of their siblings*. In many cases this is due to a lack of foster carers or adoptive parents who can care for siblings.
With record numbers of looked-after children across the UK, there’s never been greater need for more LGBTQ+ people to step forward and consider adoption or fostering.
Children who are separated from their siblings through the adoption and fostering process are faced with the reality of losing their family connections, possibly forever. Although siblings can’t always be placed together, when they can be, the rewards for them are tangible and long lasting. Children are more likely to settle into their new environment with someone they know alongside them, giving them the stability they need. It’s also fulfilling for foster/adoptive parents too, creating an immediate family bond that can be nurtured into adulthood.
Whilst LGBTQ+ adoptive parents now represent the second largest group of all adopters in England with 1 in 6 adoptions in 2022 to same-sex couples. In Wales it was 1 in 4, Northern Ireland, it was 1 in 10 and in Scotland in 2021, 1 in 11 adoptions were to same-sex couples.
Diagrama has introduced many LGBTQ+ people to fostering and adoption, and has successfully placed siblings with same sex couples as well as single people from the LGBTQ+ community.
Paul and Simon, from South London, decided they wanted to adopt siblings after hearing that brothers or sisters can be more difficult to find adopters for. https://diagramaadoption.org.uk/posts/its-one-most-rewarding-things-you-...
Robert and Paul, from South East London, adopted brothers aged two and five with help from Diagrama Adoption. https://diagramaadoption.org.uk/posts/adopting-siblings-robert-and-pauls...
Rachel and Annie became parents through Diagrama Adoption to three sibling girls. https://diagramaadoption.org.uk/posts/diagrama-recruits-adopters-part-yo...
Jason and Eric, from London, never really thought parenthood would be a possibility for them until they found their family through Diagrama.
Find out more about the campaign on the New Family Social website: https://www.newfamilysocial.org.uk/ as well as across our social media channels.
If you’re thinking about fostering or adoption or just want to find out more, talk with our dedicated team who will support you through the entire process. Contact us at https://diagramaadoption.org.uk/contact to find out more and to create a brighter future for children in care.
* BBC News: 14 January 2020 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51095939
