Welsh would-be adoptors put off

Prospective adopters in Wales have been let down by negative
responses to their initial enquiries to adoption agencies, a survey
by the St David’s Children Society has found.

Of the 21 families in the study who had approached St David’s, most
had already made enquiries about adopting elsewhere and had
negative responses.

Society director Gerry Cooney said the main problem for the
families was an assumption they would only adopt babies, because
their initial enquiry had asked about this. But many of the
families went on to adopt older children after finding out that
adopting a baby was not possible.

Baaf Adoption and Fostering Wales director Mary Romaine said: “A
lot of people who approach social services about adopting babies
will consider adopting older children.”