April 23, 2021
A new nationwide campaign from the #YOUCANADOPT team has launched today. The campaign will focus on sibling groups and encourage those considering adoption to think about adopting brothers and sisters together. SFCS is proud to be taking part in the campaign.
Latest figures show there are currently 2,030 children waiting to be adopted in England. Of those, approximately 44% are in family groups of two or more.1 Groups of children wait an average of 17 months to be adopted, which is 36% longer (135 days) than individual children. More than half of these children (56%) wait more than 18 months for their new family.3
The campaign includes a new film featuring three families from across England who have adopted brothers and sisters (see below). The emotive film celebrates the unique personal bond their children have and highlights the benefits of adopting a ready-made family. There is also a new podcast about adopting siblings presented by singer and adoptive mum, Sinitta.
New research released as part of the campaign explores adopting brothers and sisters and the benefits of keeping family groups together. It shows that 62% of parents who adopted just one child, now believe they potentially could have adopted brothers and sisters.2
While there are challenges in adopting more than one child, 88% of parents that adopted brothers and sisters say the positives outweigh any challenges.2 Furthermore, 61% acknowledge that adopting children with their brothers and sisters has been the most beneficial factor in their child’s adoption journey.2
Natalie and Phil* became parents when they adopted two sisters with the help of SFCS. Natalie says: “It’s easy to forget that adoption is just becoming new parents, and life does dramatically change for any new parents. The first few months were a massive culture shock for us and we did find things difficult. We bonded more quickly with the older child than we did with the baby, and we felt so much guilt over this.
“We weren’t prepared for feeling quite so tired, to function on little sleep and to need to be ‘switched on’ all day, every day to meet the children’s needs. In hindsight, going from no children to two children overnight was a little crazy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We now feel like a normal, happy and complete family.”
This #YouCanAdopt campaign will run until Sunday 9th May. Please make sure you’re following our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn pages – we’ll be sharing lots of helpful info and advice over the next two weeks, including podcasts, films and real adoption stories.
Visit our Adopt Siblings page to find out more about adopting brothers and sisters together with SFCS.
* Names have been changed for reasons of confidentiality.
1 Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board. Q2 2020 https://coram-i.org.uk/resource/local-level-asglb-data-q2-2020-21/
2 Survey Monkey of 198 adoptive parents and 21 considering adoption between 22nd March and 6th April 2021
3 Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board. 2018-2020
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