Slough Council joins UK’s largest adoption agency

SLOUGH: The council has joined eight other local authorities across London to join one of the country’s largest regional adoption agencies, writes Local Democracy Reporter James Bagley.

Slough Borough Council has partnered up with Coram Ambitious for Adoption to match more children waiting to be adopted more quickly with new families.

Coram Ambitious for Adoption was launched in June 2019 and is a partnership between the UK’s oldest children’s charity Coram, which has been rated outstanding by Ofsted, and several councils such as Harrow and the City of London.

According to Coram, they have seen inquiries from prospective adopters increase by 16 per cent since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 compared to the previous year, with the largest spike seen in May 2020.

With over 2,000 children currently awaiting adoption in England – more than half waiting for 18 months or longer – more adopters of all backgrounds are still needed.

Dr Carol Homden, CEO of Coram, said: “We urgently need more adoptive families to come forward to meet the diverse needs of children awaiting adoption. We need adopters from every type of background as this will enable us to ensure the many different children waiting are best able to find the loving home they need as quickly as possible.

“We look forward to working in partnership with colleagues at Slough to enable the timely matching of children and adopters and to then ensure that all families have access to high quality adoption support.

“If you are in Slough and feel you can offer a safe, secure and loving family for a vulnerable child, please don’t wait – get in touch with us to find out more at coramadoption.org.uk.”