Milton Keynes adoption agency urgently needs to find loving parents for these siblings

The move comes after new research shows 44 per cent of children awaiting adoption are in brother and sister groups.

And the young siblings are having to wait an average of 17 months to be adopted, which is 36 per cent longer than individual children.

St. Francis’ Children’s Society (SFCS) in Milton Keynes is taking part in a new nationwide #YouCanAdopt campaign. It will focus on sibling groups and encourage those considering adoption to think about adopting brothers and sisters together.

The research released as part of the campaign explores adopting brothers and sisters and the benefits of keeping family groups together. It shows that 62 per cent of parents who adopted just one child, now believe

they potentially could have adopted brothers and sisters.

While there are challenges in adopting more than one child, 88 per cent of parents that adopted brothers and

sisters say the positives outweigh any challenges, says SFCS.

And 61 per cent acknowledge that adopting children with their brothers and sisters has been the most beneficial factor in their child’s adoption journey.

Natalie and Phil became parents when they adopted two brothers with the help of SFCS. Natalie said: “It’s easy to forget that adoption is just becoming new parents, and life does dramatically change for any new parents.

"The first few months were a massive culture shock for us and we did find things difficult. We bonded more quickly with the older child than we did with the baby, and we felt so much guilt over this.

“We weren’t prepared for feeling quite so tired, to function on little sleep and to need to be ‘switched on’ all day, every day to meet the children’s needs. In hindsight, going from no children to two children overnight was a little crazy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We now feel like a normal, happy and complete family.”

Over the next two weeks, on their social media channels, SFCS will be sharing films, podcasts and real

stories which offer information for people considering adopting siblings.

They will also be hosting an online information event at 6.30pm on Wednesday 5th May for anyone considering You can find out more about adopting brothers and sisters with SFCS here.