NATIONAL ADOPTION WEEK

That this House supports National Adoption Week, which runs from 10th to 16th November 2008, organised by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF); congratulates the BAAF on the excellent work it carries out to promote and support adoption in the United Kingdom; believes that adoption with a loving family provides vulnerable children who cannot live with their birth parents a much better chance of continuity and stability of care when all efforts to keep the child with his or her birth parents or extended family have been exhausted; is concerned about recent figures showing a decline in the number of children successfully adopted; and urges the Government and local authorities to do all they can to promote more families coming forward to offer adoptive placements.