LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week takes place from 3 to 9 March 2025 and we wanted to remind everyone that people from a range of different backgrounds can foster or adopt.

LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week is an annual campaign led by the national charity New Family Social and the Council is also working in partnership with Adopt South-West.

Events during LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week

• New Family Social are holding an online information webinar on Tuesday 4 March for LGBTQ+ people who are thinking of fostering or adopting. You will need to register with New Family Social for free as a Bronze member to take part via this link. 
• During the week our Fostering service will be at the South Devon Careers event on Wednesday 5 March at South Devon College. This is an internal event so any students and staff at the college will be able to find out about becoming a Foster Carer.

Councillor Nick Bye, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said: “In Torbay we have a diverse range of families who adopt and foster and LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week is a great opportunity to encourage more people to come forward.

“Providing a safe and loving foster or adoptive home, is one of the best gifts you can give to a cared for child, but many of our local foster carers have also described fostering as a privilege.

“We want to use this week as an opportunity to remind people that if you want to foster or adopt you can be from any background, gender or sexual orientation. You can also foster if you are single as long as you have stable accommodation.”

Did you know

• In 2024, one in five adoptions were to same sex couples
• Three out of four New Family Social adopters consider adopting siblings
• There are 57,500 children in foster care in England.
• In Torbay, the Fostering service is run by Torbay Council’s Children’s Services, while Adoption services are managed regionally by Adopt South-West.

If you Foster with Torbay you will get access to:  

• Extensive support and training 
• a dedicated social worker 
• Mentoring from an experienced Foster Carer 
• access to a support network including local quarterly Foster Carers Forum 
• events throughout the year for Fostering families including annual summer barbecue, Train of Lights event and Christmas parties

You can also contact our Fostering service on 01803 207845, email fostering@torbay.gov.uk or visit our Fostering webpages. 

Change a child’s future – Foster with Torbay

Find out about Adoption

n Torbay and across the rest of Devon, Adoption is managed through Adopt South West. For more information call Adopt South West on 0345 155 1076, email adoptsouthwest@devon.gov.uk or visit the Adopt South West website.

Find out more about New Family Social

You can also find out more about LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week on the New Family Social website where you can find links to podcasts and lots of other information.

Same-sex Fostering case study

Two women from Torbay have shared their Fostering story with us.

The couple foster together and enjoy family days out. Here’s what they told us:

“I got into fostering, mainly because my background was in, childcare, ever since I finished college. 

“So I then, decided to, look at the option of fostering. I've got, two sons myself, and, I thought it could work very well in our family unit. When I met my partner, it was something that I'd always wanted to do. So, we kind of came together with fostering as part of our relationship.

“The best thing about Fostering is building a relationship and seeing children grow, change and develop. It is about the family, embracing having another child in the household and I want to see them flourish, within the placement.

“It's very up and down. The ‘ups’ include seeing your foster children on their journey, seeing some of the changes, seeing them become more confident, creative, maybe getting a sense of humour that they didn't have before.

“Our best kind of fostering moments are days out, they're always fun and a bit crazy and chaotic.

“We like to go to a nearby swimming pool from the leisure centre nearby. We also like going to the library, then on other days we may go to Woodlands or Crealy. 

“Typically, locally, we like to go to down and to the parks, taking the children out outside and up to the sea.

“We get very good support from Torbay Council. We got a very, good, social worker that we have a really good relationship with. and that enables us to be sort of open, if we experience any difficulties.

“If you enjoy being with children it’s really satisfying and rewarding, even seeing very slow changes which can make the difference to some children and their lives. 

“So if you have time and love to give, and you feel that you can offer a foster child a safe and secure environment, then go for it.”

You can find Fostering case studies on our Fostering webpages.