Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that a child may be placed for adoption in a family with a different racial and cultural background to his or her own if that is conducive to the child's overall welfare.

Many adopters provide brilliant love and care for children, including those with whom they do not share the same ethnicity. The department’s National Adoption Strategy, published in July 2021, sets out a specific commitment to ensuring adopters get the support they need if they adopt children of a different ethnicity to their own. Further details are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006232/_Adoption_strategy_.pdf.

Regional Adoption Agency leaders are looking to develop specific transracial resources for social workers and adopters, as part of their work in supporting children with their identity.