Adoption stories abound in the media - from celebrity adoptions and tales of 'joyful' reunions with biological parents, to sad stories of children returned to social services or their countries of origin because of their behaviour, to the adoption or care histories of high-profile criminals and mass killers.
Calls for early intervention into the lives of children at risk of neglect or abuse emphasise that local authority care and adoption is seen as a key solution to keeping children safe.
Of the 60,900 children who were in the care of local authorities in England in March 2009, 23,200 (38 per cent) were aged nine or younger. Of the 3,300 children who were adopted from care in that year, 3,220 (97 per cent) were in that age group and 2,300 (72 per cent) were aged between one and four years old. (Figures for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also available on the BAAF website.) There are thought to be about 300 inter-country adoptions every year, with the largest numbers of children adopted from China and Russia.
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