National Adoption Week 2025
This National Adoption Week, we’re tackling the misconceptions around needing a ‘perfect’ home to adopt a child, showing that children don’t need perfection — they just need a welcome home.
We’re celebrating the ‘perfectly imperfect’ family homes built through adoption
A child doesn’t just need a house, they need a home. That home doesn’t need to be ‘perfect’ to be a welcoming place for a child to find love, stability and belonging.
You can welcome a child into the heart of your home whether it’s owned or rented, big or small, or whether it’s just you, a partner, other children or your extended family.
Watch our short video to see adoptive families creating our ‘A Welcome Home’, sharing their everyday moments and memories of what makes their house a family home.
Reasons to adopt
Sadly, the number of people registering to adopt in England continues to decline
Key points
- There are currently 2,940 children with a plan for adoption not yet placed with an adoptive family.
- More children are waiting to be placed with an adoptive family for longer than 18 months — 1,430 children, a 4% increase from last year.
- The average time from grant of an adoption placement order for a child and being placed with an adoptive family is 292 days, 11 days longer than last year.
- For children aged over 5, from an Ethnic Minority (excluding White minorities) background, with a disability, and siblings, this is likely to be longer and they are less likely to be adopted.
Can you provide a family home?
