Putting children first

Prime Minister David Cameron has reaffirmed his pledge to make the coalition the most “family-friendly” government in history during his keynote speech at the Conservative Party Conference.

He said that race rules that prevent white families from adopting black children should be ripped up to end the national ‘scandal’ of thousands of youngsters left languishing in care. Black children are currently three times less likely to be adopted than white children.

Addressing delegates gathered in Manchester, Cameron said his mission to build a big society started with families.

David Cameron asked why “people are flying all over the world to adopt babies while the care system at home agonises about placing black children with white families”. He announced a “new focus on the 65,000 children in care”.

The Department for Education said the number of children placed for adoption fell from 2,700 to 2,300 last year and black children aged under five remained in care for 1,300 days on average before they were adopted, compared with 955 days for white or Asian children.

Adoption by couples of a different race from the child has been banned since the 1990s following claims that the child suffers identity crisis. Independent research has found that this is not the case.

Ten years ago Tony Blair vowed to sweep away the petty rules but his 2002 Act, which introduced adoption by gay couples, failed to meet a target of 50 per cent more adoptions from care.

In many cases, the authorities demanded that potential parents have the same ethnic make-up as children they wished to look after permanently.

Adoptions were also prevented to parents judged too old, too unhealthy, or to be smokers. The hostile approach has been blamed for helping to cut adoptions tenfold since the 1970s.