If you are thinking about becoming a parent through adoption PACT (Parents And Children Together) is here to help!
PACT is an independent, voluntary adoption agency and trauma recovery charity helping hundreds of people build and strengthen their family each year.
PACT’s adoption services are rated as outstanding by Ofsted and the charity provides lifelong adoption support. Last year, 29% of the children PACT placed in loving families were of Black, Asian or mixed heritage.
PACT’s Adopter Diversity Recruitment Officer Grace Gomez said:, “In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the need for more Black people to become parents for children in care. While the landscape of adoption is diverse, the representation of Black adopters remains significantly lower than the number of Black children waiting for adoption.
Black children are overrepresented in England’s care system, making up 7% of the total, compared with 5.5% of the child population.
However, they are significantly underrepresented in adoption, accounting for just 2% of those adopted in the year to March 2023 (source: Department for Education), while those placed for adoption wait significantly longer than average to be adopted.
Adoption England noted that Black children who had not been placed with a family had waited an average of 18 months since being granted a placement order – 11 months longer than the average for white children – and 32 months since entering care, a full year longer than white children.
“By encouraging more Black people to consider adoption, we can help ensure that these children have the opportunity to grow up in families that share their cultural and racial background.”
“Adoption is so rewarding and most people have the qualities to be a great parent. People who want to adopt may already have the skills and attributes they need to change the course of these children’s lives. Our families find it reassuring that PACT’s lifelong support is there if they need it.”
You can adopt if.
- If you are single, married or in a long term relationship
- If you own your own home or rent
- If you have a disability or are managing health conditions
- If you have children, or if you have none—some people adopt multiple times
- If you are aged over 45
After being approved for adoption, June, who is Black British with a Guyanese/Jamaican family heritage, and Michael, who was born in Jamaica, were matched with Summer and Rachel, a sibling group who are of Caribbean family heritage.
June said: ‘For me and Michael it was important to us that we could support children within our cultural identity. It made the adoption process easier for us as we could focus on how to integrate our children into our world.”
June went on to say: “Knowing that the girls’ birth family are from the same ethnic group that Michael and I are from, made it feel like it would be a natural process.
“I just think that in their lives my girls will have 101 extra things to deal with because they are adopted so if issues over identity can be minimised, then that can only be a positive thing.
“I am absolutely determined to do what I can to make my girls proud of who they are, and I know I can help them with that.”
To find out more about adopting with PACT please download our Guide to Adoption from www.pactcharity.org/adoptionor call us on 0300 456 4800. Lines are open 10am-5pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10am-8pm on Tuesday and Thursday, and 10am-1pm on Saturday.
*Names changed to protect identity.
