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Prejudice that 'denies ethnic babies a home'

The number of babies adopted is falling as ‘prejudiced’ local authorities will not let white parents look after ethnic children, the head of Barnardo’s says.

The number of babies adopted is falling as ‘prejudiced’ local authorities will not let white parents look after ethnic children, the head of Barnardo’s says.

Just 70 under the age of one were found homes last year – a mere 2 per cent of the total 3,200 children adopted.

In 1974, 5,174 babies were given to families – nearly 25 per cent of the total 22,502 adoptions.

The scandalous decline over 35 years is coupled with the fact that, according to the outgoing head of the children’s charity, Martin Narey – black, Asian and mixed-race children now wait three times longer than white ones to be placed.

He has accused local authorities and adoption agencies of a reluctance to allow white couples to adopt minorities.

This is due to prejudice that is ‘so entrenched’ it could result in the complete demise of adoptions, he said.

The decline in the adoption of babies leaves thousands of children languishing on waiting lists and denies thousands of couples the chance to give a child a loving home.

As a result, many couples have resorted to adopting babies from abroad.

Part of the decline is due to changes in society, however.

Before the 1980s, for example, many women who had children out of wedlock were encouraged to put them up for adoption.

Last year a record 64,400 children were in care, while the number adopted reached a new low of 3,200.

And while 3,700 of them were under the age of one, just 70 were adopted.

The policy of thwarting the adoption of ethnic children by white couples has led to a rise in the average age of adoption to three years and nine months.

Some 70 per cent of children adopted are now between the ages of one and four, while in 1974 it was just 27 per cent.

Mr Narey, who leaves his post as chief of Barnardo’s after five years at the helm, said that, by law, ethnicity could not be used as a barrier to adoption. However, he said that in all too many cases it was.

‘The law is clear,’ he said. ‘A child should not stay in care for an undue length of time while waiting for adoptive parents of the same ethnicity.’

Read more at the Mail Online website