Charity encourages black adoption

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Children's charity NCH is to launch a scheme to encourage more people from black and other ethnic minority communities to adopt children.

As National Adoption Week begins, NCH said its NCH Black Families staff would help those people by being able to understand their background.

It said for every approved adopter from a black or mixed background there were three children available for adoption.

A recent NCH study showed many people were unaware of adoption criteria.

Recruitment difficulties

The survey suggested 42% from black and ethnic minority communities thought they were not eligible to adopt.

"It is harder to recruit adopters from [those] communities partly because they think they aren't eligible to adopt and partly due to the reluctance of [such] adults to approach social services departments," said NCH adoption manager Sue Cotton.

"At NCH Black Families we actively engage with [those] communities to overcome these issues and encourage more people to adopt."

The scheme was initially run as a pilot in London and will be expanded to the Midlands and the north of England.