Call for gay foster and adoptive parents during awareness week (From Bucks Free Press)

Call for gay foster and adoptive parents during awareness week

8:50am Monday 4th March 2013 in News By Andy Carswell

GAY couples in Bucks are being encouraged to consider fostering or adopting children as a nationwide awareness campaign starts today.

Buckinghamshire County Council is supporting the second annual LGBT Adoption and Fostering Week, which gets underway today, as a way of helping the 39 children waiting to be adopted and the 60 who need a long-term foster home. A total of 386 children in the county are currently cared for by an adoptive or foster family.

The national campaign, run by charities Action for Children and New Family Social, aims to educate prospective parents and carers about how to offer children a home through adoption or fostering.

Information events for couples who want to find out more are being run around the county this week, including one at High Wycombe Library from 10am-2pm on Friday March 8. Others take place at Aylesbury Library on Monday and Buckingham Library on Wednesday.

Valerie Letheren, Buckinghamshire County Council's Cabinet Member for Children's Services, said: "Sadly there are an increasing number of children who are unable to live with their birth families and our priority is to ensure that they are placed in a loving, stable home, which is why we urgently need more people to come forward to foster or adopt Bucks children.

"I encourage anyone interested in adoption or fostering to find out more information regardless of their marital status, age, race or sexuality."

Sean and Lee, who adopted their children through Buckinghamshire County Council, are keen to encourage would-be adopters or foster carers to find out more.

Sean said: "Adopting our son and daughter has been amazing, we are so happy that we took the steps to enquire and adopt through the County Council. The process was thorough but our social worker was very friendly and took us through the stages step by step.

“When we were matched with our children who are siblings, we had an instinctive feeling that they were the right children to make our family complete. Meeting them both was one of the best moments of our lives and we love being their dad and daddy. My partner and I couldn’t imagine life without them."

For more information go to www.buckscc.gov.uk/fostering  or www.buckscc.gov.uk/adoption.

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