The Derby Evening Telegraph is taking a major role in a drive to find adoptive parents for children in care.

The newspaper, in partnership with Derbyshire County Council, has launched a new website aimed at speeding up the adoption process.

The move comes on the day that the Government is expected to announce new rules aimed at finding homes more quickly for children in care.

Social Services Minister John Hutton will call today (Friday July 7) for a newnational registration system to be established to co-ordinateadoptions across England.

But the new website www.adoption-net.co.uk aims to speed things up even further by offering advice to prospective adoptive parents. It could even feature photographs of children needing homes.

In October, pictures of six children were posted on Derbyshire County Council’s website – which is run by the Evening Telegraph – in what was the first move of its kind in the country.

Success was immediate. The site had 19,000 visits in four days – 19 times more than it usually got.

After four days the pictures were removed from the site so social services could sift through applications and begin vetting procedures.

All the children found prospective parents and two of the children are now with their new families.

It was the success of this experiment that persuaded the editor of the Derby Telegraph, Keith Perch, to build a new national website dedicated to adoption and fostering.

He said: “The public reaction to the first Internet pictures of UK children offered for adoption was unprecedented.

“It was clear that there was a real need for one place where couples who wanted to adopt a child could go for help, advice and clear guidance.

“Adoption-net.co.uk is that place. Not only do we steer couples through the maze of adoption information but we also update our news pages every day to keep visitors aware of how daily developments can affect their plans to adopt or foster.

“The information has always been there in lots of different places – but new technology gives us a new way of making sense of it and getting it to more people. And that means a new chance for the young people who need a new family.”

In the UK currently, more than 5,000 children are waiting to be adopted but an estimated 1,300 people have been cleared to adopt and are still waiting for a child.

The site is being edited by journalist Lisa Cherry-Downes, who joined the Evening Telegraph in March to set up www.adoption-net.co.uk.

She has previously worked at Today, the Wolverhampton Express & Star, Nottingham Evening Post, Lincolnshire Echo and the Newark Advertiser.

Lisa said: “Our ultimate aim is that adoption-net will become the first stop for anyone interested in adopting or fostering a child in the UK.

“There are a lot of children – particularly older children – in Britain who desperately need new families. We hope it will encourage more people to feel they may have something to offer.

“We recognise that once people have taken children into their families, they will quite often need on-going support.

“Adoption-net covers this angle, too, with advice and information on child behaviour problems, legal issues and information on how to go about tracing relatives lost through adoption.

“And there is, of course, daily updated news – contributions to which are always welcome.”

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