A FLY-on-the wall documentary featuring Bournemouth children being adopted by their forever families will be broadcast on television this week.

Bournemouth council’s adoption team features in two episodes of the new ITV series “Wanted: A Family Of My Own,” the first of which will air on Thursday at 9pm.

The programme makers worked with Bournemouth council to provide an intimate insight into adoption in Britain. Presented by Nicky Campbell, who was himself adopted as a baby, the series follows the searches of people desperate to become parents and the children who have suffered the toughest of starts in life.

It features a gay couple who thought they would never become parents, a single mum who is adopting for the third time, a baby boy who was born addicted to crack cocaine and couples who, after struggling with infertility, are finally getting close to having families of their own.

Kim Drake, Bournemouth’s service director of children’s social care, said: “This has been an exciting venture resulting in a very high quality production.

“We hope to gain significant interest in adoption and indeed fostering in Bournemouth which we are all geared up for following the programmes going to air.

“The Bournemouth staff featured in the programmes have done a fantastic job and are great ambassadors I think for the council and social work.”

She stressed the council had worked to ensure confidentiality and accuracy but said the programmes would “reflect some of the more positive outcomes of child protection work and an area of council business not often seen".

 

The adoption process is now much easier

Former Bournemouth councillor Nick King and his civil partner have a seven-year-old son who they adopted four-and-a-half years ago and a three-year-old daughter who they adopted two years ago.
Both were adopted through Bournemouth social services and Nick said they were helped through the process by professional and kind social workers.
“The process has changed since we did it and it’s now much quicker to go through,” he said.
“We have friends who are going through it at the moment and they started in January and will be approved by July.
“The Bournemouth social workers were very focussed on the outcome everybody wanted, which was to make sure the children had a safe, loving and permanent home.
“I can honestly say that every social worker we have ever dealt with has been professional, friendly, accommodating and compassionate.
“We have never looked back, it is the best thing we have ever done and my advice to anybody thinking about it is to ring Bournemouth and just have a chat with them. They will give you a very honest and realistic picture. You should definitely try because it revolutionises children’s lives.”