Families in Stoke on Trent are being targeted in a drive to find adoptive parents.

Derby City Council has taken the unusual step of looking outside its own boundaries to try and give children a new lease of life.

They feel in a handful of cases youngsters need to find adoptive parents outside their home city.

The new approach is thought to be unique in the world of fostering and adoption and aims to protect the youngsters from various pressures they might be under if they remain in the Derby area.

Dal Guram of Derby social services said: "We try to find adoptive parents outside of Derby to give these children a new start in their lives.

"We are hoping we can find adoptive parents for two sets of brothers and three other youngsters. It is difficult to find adoptive parents for children over the age of five and for sibling groups where you are trying to place brothers and sisters together. These children tend to get left behind in the adoption system.

"Children need adoptive parents for a variety of reasons. For example their parents may not be able to look after them, they are orphans, or they have been looked after by grandparents who can no longer do so. It is through no fault of the children involved.
"They deserve another chance to live with a permanent family."

Nationally there is a shortage of people who want to adopt, but Mr Guram hopes that partnerships with other social services can help overcome that shortage. He believes that better matches of children and potential adoptive parents could also be a benefit of working together.

He added: "The adoption process can take about six months and all prospective adoptive parents are assessed for their suitability to look after a child. Adoptive parents can come from all adult age groups. They can be single, married, divorced or living together. They can be from any cultural background and parents with or without children"

In Stoke-on-Trent last year 42 children were hoping for people to come forward and offer them a full time, permanent home. Of those, 20 were brothers and sisters, including one family of four, and four families of three.

Denise Smallwood of the city's Family Placement Team said four of the 42 were aged 10 or over, adding it gets more difficult to get children adopted as they get older.

She said: "There is no typical adoptive family, just as there is no typical child who needs adoption. A wide range of people can and do adopt - couples, families and single people who are committed to the idea of offering children a permanent home with them."

The unit also has 267 children needing foster placements.