National Adoption Week 2019

This week is National Adoption Week, and Bedford Borough Council is urging adoptive families to come forward in an effort to provide homes for children.

The focus for 2019 is on those children who wait the longest to find a loving home - those in a sibling group, children from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, older children and those with complex health needs or those with a disability.

In the East of England there are nearly twice as many children awaiting adoptive families as there are adopters, with 420 children waiting to be adopted and just 155 families approved to adopt.

You don't have to live in Bedford to adopt with Bedford Borough Council, which takes enquiries from surrounding areas such as Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire, and Cambridgeshire.

This is what a Bedford Borough Adopter had to say about about their own experience:

"Because we were open to the miracle of adoption, we now have our two perfect children who bring constant laughter, pride, and undeniable happiness into our lives every single day. I cannot emphasise enough how life-changing and rewarding adoption has been for us. It only took one simple (but frightening) phone call to initiate this wonderful journey and that phone call was the single most important thing I have ever done in my life."

If you would like to find out more about adoption, you can attend an information evening on Wednesday 6 November at Borough Hall from 6:30pm. To book a place or to contact the team call 01234 718718, email adoptionandfostering@bedford.gov.uk or visit www.adopt4us.com.