Children and Young People Now reports that Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people will get additional support in their efforts to adopt a child after the Department for Education announced it will provide funding to improve the process.
Charity New Family Social has been handed £100,000 by the DfE to support LGBT people through the adoption process. The DfE has given a total of £100,000 to New Family Social, the UK’s only LGBT adoption and fostering charity – so it can work to improve the assessment, matching and ongoing support of LGBT people going through the adoption process. New Family Social will work with existing adoption agencies and new regional adoption agencies from across England over the next 18 months to raise their awareness of evidence around the matching of LGBT-approved adopters with children. The charity will also work with adoption agency staff to reduce unconscious bias against LGBT adopters. A report published in March by the charity found some incidents of discrimination against LGBT adopters throughout the adoption process. Last month New Family Social found that one in 12 adoptions in England is to same-sex couples. The number of children adopted by same-sex couples has risen four-fold since 2007, when figures were first collected. Overall, a total of 1,313 children have been adopted by LGBT couples in England, Scotland and Wales since the law changed in December 2005.