Ipswich dad urges more people to consider adoption as shortage grows
New figures suggest there are around 1,600 more children needing adoption in England than approved adopters available
An Ipswich dad is urging people not to rule out adoption as new figures warn of a growing shortage of families able to offer children a permanent home.
A report from Adoption England and children's charity Coram warns that, if current trends continue, by 2030 there could be enough approved adoptive families to meet just 13% of the need from children seeking a permanent home.
The organisations say there are currently around 1,600 more children needing adoption in England than approved adopters available, while children in need of adoption spend an average of 646 days waiting for a permanent family after entering care.
Their analysis says the gap between children and approved adopters has increased by 52% over the past five years, while the number of approved adopters has fallen by 46%.
The figures have prompted a new campaign encouraging more people to consider whether adoption could be right for them.
‘There’s a bit of a tragedy brewing’
Shamser Sinha, from Ipswich, is a single adoptive dad who already had an older birth son when he adopted his younger son, Kusum, who was six-and-a-half at the time.
Reflecting on the new figures, he said: “It seems that there's a bit of a tragedy brewing because there are many children who need a stable, loving home and to know that they've got a family, a forever family.”
He said he believed adoption could also enrich the lives of people who might not previously have considered it.
“The fact that that's not happening is bad primarily for the children,” he said.
“There's a lot of happiness to be found and we're not finding it.”
Shamser said concerns about finances and living standards may be among the reasons some people hesitate, alongside fears that they might not be the “perfect person” to adopt or would struggle with challenges a child had experienced.
But he said parenting inevitably involves situations which cannot be completely anticipated.
“There's always stuff that you don't necessarily know in the moment how to deal with, but you can just do the best that you can do and take your learning and use that next time,” he said.
“That's what parenting is. You build and you build and you build.”
From counting to 99 to beating Dad at chess
Shamser's younger son was placed with him in February 2024.
He recalled a moment during a period when his son was waiting for a specialist school place, when he noticed him writing numbers while he was making pasta.
Shamser said his son began working through the numbers until he reached 99 — an ability he said had not been anticipated in the reports he had received.
“This kid wants to learn,” he recalled thinking. “It's my job to support him, to support him in that.”
Shamser said the confidence his son gained through learning began to extend to other parts of his life, including making his own breakfast and learning to cycle.
“This is him, this is his adventure, this is his ambition for what the world can, he can give to the world and what the world can bring for him,” he said.
“All my job is just to tune into that and try and support that.”
His son is now nine and, Shamser says, has recently started beating him at chess.
“I'm not playing easier on him,” he said.
“It just shows when you're there, you consistently turn up and you give them the avenues to explore who they are. Look where he can get to.
“No one would have seen that coming.”
‘These are my people and this is where I belong’
Shamser said seeing fewer people coming forward to adopt worried him because of the importance he places on children having a sense of security and belonging.
He said: “Can they really have that security of these are my people and this is where I belong?
“And if you don't have that security, it must make it difficult for you then to trust, to enjoy life with people around you, to learn, because you learn better when you're more secure as well.”
He added: “There's so much potential there... they should have the same chances that other children have.”
Shamser was also careful not to generalise from his family's experience to all children in care.
Speaking about his son's life before being placed with him, he said he could only speak from personal experience because children's circumstances and care settings differ.
He said his son had been “very much loved” and supported by his foster carer, who had catered for his needs “very, very well”.
What does becoming an adopter involve?
Shamser described the adoption process as “really long, really hard”, but said there was a reason for the scrutiny and preparation involved.
“It has to be because you need to be as prepared as you can be,” he said.
He eventually chose to adopt through Barnardo's and said the process included detailed conversations about why he wanted to adopt, how a child would fit into his life and whether he was prepared to reorganise his life around them.
He also underwent training covering children's differing needs, the effect previous placements can have on trust and how adopters can build a secure attachment with a child.
Shamser said prospective adopters should also have access to reports about a child before adoption, although he stressed that reading information on paper and experiencing family life together could be different.
‘You just need to open the door’
The national figures have been released alongside You Can Adopt's Every Day is Everything campaign, which aims to challenge assumptions about who can adopt and encourage people to find out more before ruling themselves out.
Adoption England says prospective adopters do not need to have everything “perfectly in place” before exploring adoption and says support is available during the process and afterwards.
Shamser had a similar message for people who may be curious but unsure whether they would be suitable.
“I would say it's not really about whether there are two of you, do you have a car, a big driveway, a lovely house?” he said.
“It's more about... have you got enough love? Are you willing to shape all of your world around the child or children you're adopting?”
He encouraged people to begin by speaking to an adoption agency or people who have already adopted, rather than viewing an initial enquiry as a commitment.
“You don't have to commit; you're just having an introductory chat to have a few feelings about what it might be like, what it might feel like,” he said.
“Don't necessarily move 100 miles ahead by committing to everything. You just need to open the door and have a look and see what's inside.”
The campaign says if adopter registrations returned to levels seen a few years ago, permanent homes could be found for nearly 1,000 more children by 2030.