Kent adoption rates on the decline

700 children across England are still waiting to be matched to families.  Oliver Leader de Saxe

Transcript

00:00Maidstone on the front line of Kent's adoption decline.

00:03Across the country, hundreds of children are facing 18-month waits to be placed with an

00:09adoptive family.

00:11And here at the South East Adoption Partnership, this drop in adopters is hitting the most

00:17vulnerable children hardest.

00:19I do wonder whether people rule themselves out thinking that maybe they don't have enough

00:23money, they're not financially able to take on children through adoption.

00:29It may be that they think that they're too young, that they don't own a house.

00:32So we specifically have a challenge in finding families for our children with more complex

00:38needs.

00:39So those children that have disabilities, those children that are slightly older, so

00:44aged four and over, and also for our brothers and sisters who we want to place together.

00:50Lucas and Lloyd are two adopters with very different experiences.

00:55United by the positive change it's had on their lives, Lloyd adopted a sibling pair

01:01about a decade ago when there was less support, though we can't show any pictures for safeguarding

01:07reasons.

01:09To him, misconceptions around adoption is what is holding people back.

01:14Because there was no support when we were first new adopters, you did feel a little

01:20bit isolated and a bit sort of trying to fight your own battles.

01:23Now that the service offers so much more in the way of adoption support, it just makes

01:29you feel like you're being supported all the way through and that that support is there

01:35no matter what you're going through as a family.

01:38Lucas adopted his son when he was in his late 20s.

01:43He says the joys of adopting a slightly older vulnerable toddler has massively outweighed

01:50the challenges.

01:51So my son was a complete mute up until the age of three and a half.

01:55So he didn't talk, he didn't do much.

01:57He was quite, well, obviously a very quiet child.

02:00And to see him grow and, you know, he's now reading, writing, doesn't stop talking, and

02:05he's really grown in the person that he's become.

02:07It's the best thing that ever happened to us in our world.

02:10He's, yeah, get to be a parent of a beautiful child that's, you know, wonderful.

02:16With demand increasing for adoption services, the stories of Lloyd and Lucas have never

02:21been more important in showcasing the challenges of adoption, but also the joys.

02:28Oliver Leader of the Saks for KMTV in Maidstone.