LGBT Adoption & Fostering Week is an annual campaign – led by New Family Social – to encourage more lesbian, gay, bi and trans people to consider adopting and fostering. While record numbers of LGBT people now adopt and foster, there is still an urgent need for more to do so.
In 2017, 1 in 10 adoptions were to same-sex couples and although this is an increase on previous years there continues to be a desperate need for LGBT foster carers and adopters across the UK with more than 70,000 children still in care.
The Adoption and Children Act 2002 gave unmarried couples, including same sex couples, the right to adopt, and this became law in December 2005. LGBT couples don’t need to be in a Civil Partnership or married to adopt and single adopters are also welcome whatever their gender or sexual orientation. More information about who is eligible to adopt here.