The media has already called it a non-event. Adoption week. One week where we try to focus attention on the kids who don’t get a fair shot at life. The kids who languish in care. The kids who could have a family if the authorities and government could look beyond their own inhuman and inefficient processes.

Since last year we’ve heard Cameron and co talk the talk. They made some announcements and some that even made the headlines. And then, nothing.

But some people are interested. We have been utterly amazed by the generosity of agencies and individuals who have worked flat out over the past few weeks to pull together our campaign for Adopt a Better Way.Most of them have worked totally unpaid. They have done it not because they want to adopt or were rejected for adoption. These are people who simply care what happens to thousands of children in the UK every year. Children who are already damaged and then have to endure further damage by the system.

They work in media, marketing, design, writing, film and research. They are natural parents not adoptive ones. They are people like you who understand that if you fix the children you fix society.These people have freely helped us produce our new brand, our new launch, the posters you will see at over 20 sites in London. These people haven’t asked for acknowledgement. All they want is that you spend a few minutes thinking about the kids that society is failing. (A list of poster sites is at the at bottom of this post)

We’ve commissioned a report that shows just how broken the care system is. The findings indicate just how the care system impacts on a child’s ability to settle into an adopted family and shows us that with some commonsense thinking, we can improve their lives. And our society.

We need your help. They need your help. If you’d like to help a child get a real shot at life please visit our website and make a donation. Yes it’s for the children. But actually it’s for society as a whole. If we make just a few small changes to the system we can prevent kids ending up homeless, as prostitutes or addicted to drugs after being in care. And we can give more of them a permanent loving home. That is why we’re here. And we hope you are too.

“Like Francesca, I am an adoptive parent of two lovely children. And like her I have experienced the utter frustration, despair and anger at the way the current system operates. This is not a political issue: successive governments have failed to solve the problem. So what’s the problem? Simply that a failing system discourages adoptive parents from adopting, and penalises children born into dysfunctional families.

“These are children whose birth parents have usually been abused or neglected.  Often, the best way out for these most vulnerable children is adoption. But adoption just isn’t accepted by the system. That’s why only a few dozen babies were adopted last year. The courts and local authorities need to be held to account, and the government of the day must get a grip.  Our government has a moral duty to get the system working, introduce national procedures, and rid the system of unnecessary obstacles. And there isn’t a moment to waste. I look forward to helping Francesca in her quest to change things for the better.”

Bruce Oldfied says:  “Adoption today in the UK is itself dysfunctional. I find it particularly absurd that that colour and culture are preventing children being adopted by families because social workers and local authorities think it won’t work. I myself was adopted by a single white woman, an extraordinary lady who adopted six of us in all. None of us were white. Her love, encouragement and the stable home she gave all of us was far more important than the colour we were born with.

“She is the reason I am who I am today and also the reason I am a couturier. As a dressmaker herself she was my role model. Without her there would be no Bruce Oldfield.  When Francesca told me what she was doing with Adoption With Humanity, I was immediately behind her. We need to get back to basics and  to what adoption is all about and that is children who need parents and would be parents who have the love to give those children.”

John himself was a neglected child who, as he wryly puts it, was brought up by “Her Majesty’s prison system.” In an amusing aside he pointed out how his time in prison cost more than it did to educate David Cameron at Eton!

The need for John’s work is inextricably linked to the way in which children begin their lives. Lack of a loving stable home will almost,always result in a problem be it large or small. Every year around 4000 children are removed from their birth families where they have been subject to neglect or abuse, either intentionally or not. On average they will have probably spent a year ‘waiting’ while the social care system tries to sort out foster parenting. Of these about 1000 never find a home and are shunted around the care system. Needless to say, their futures are not hopeful. Around one-third will not take GCSEs. Children in the care system are three times more likely to be unemployed and twice as likely to have a criminal record.

I’m not saying this means they’ll end up homeless but whether they end up with a home for life is another story. The way in which children are shunted around the system slowly means that with each birthday they become less likely to get adopted. And that’s why the issue has to be tackled holistically, something John instinctively understands.