Rise in the number of gay couples adopting in Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Council has announced that last year, one in nine children were placed in a same-sex household making Nottinghamshire well above the national average for gay adoptive parents.
The national average rate of children adopted by same-sex couples is one in 15.
There are over 800 children in care in Nottinghamshire. Last year, 92 adoptions were granted compared to 40 in 2012.
Claire Foale, from Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “We have had a really proactive campaign to bust the kind of myth that includes lesbian and gay couples can’t adopt, which is rubbish.
“We want enquiries from parents, single people who can adopt, regardless of their sexual orientation.”
Derbyshire County Council is reviewing their same-sex adoption recruitment strategy to increase its figures, with one in 20 gay couples adopting.
Mandy and Louise, a couple from Nottinghamshire who recently started adopting said: “If they get the opportunity, they should go and see some children with a same-sex couple and just see their is the love and the warmth there – from the children, from the parents, they are just happy and as comfortable with it as we are.”
Northen Ireland lifted its ban on gay couples in adopting children in December 2013.
