Closed petition Every child deserves a family … Help fix our broken adoption system

Closed on 4 October 2012

4000: number of children awaiting adoption -

2 years 7 months: time children wait to be adopted -

3 years 10 months: average age at the time of adoption -

Reports show that the adoption system is failing. Efforts to improve it have failed because there is an authority vacuum. Major intervention and a new
structure are urgently required to ensure children are given priority.

We call on the Government to set up a National Adoption Authority to bring together control over all elements of the adoption system, including the
courts. Governed by a mixed representative body covering the whole spectrum of adoption, its role would be to ensure that policies and guidelines based
on medical and child development evidence and best practice worldwide are enforced and success measured.

Barriers to adoption need to be broken down and the authority vacuum needs to be filled - Support the call for a National Adoption Agency.