Buckinghamshire Council proud of same-sex couple adoption figures

Brian and John Kilfeather-Larkin adopted a four-year-old boy in August 2021

A council has said it is "really proud" that one in six adoptions in the area last year were by same-sex couples.

Buckinghamshire Council said it wanted to encourage more people who identify as LGBTQ+ to explore adoption.

Brian and John Kilfeather-Larkin, who live in Amersham, said adopting a four-year-old boy in 2021 was "emotional but amazing".

The married couple said their experience of the process was "very good".

"When we had our first meeting with the council, I brought up the fact we're a same-sex couple and they were, like, 'why are you bringing that up as a concern?',"said 39-year-old Brian.

"The social worker said all the couples she was dealing with at that time were same-sex couples.

"For us, that was a real revelation."

The couple met in London 14 years ago and moved to the Buckinghamshire town a decade ago.

They started to explore adoption during lockdown and their son started living with them in August 2021.

The couple have been married for three-and-a-half years

"It was a massive change for us and our future child, an adopted child with additional needs, so we wanted to make sure we didn't take the decision lightly," Brian said.

"It was quite emotional but amazing.

John said he felt "quite anxious" in the first few weeks as the couple were learning more about their son.

"We knew a lot about his general wellbeing but not if he liked the colour blue or he liked going down this slide," he added.

'Different heritage'

The couple said their son "knows exactly where he has come from" and was aware "he has a birth mother".

"He has had questions at school about him having two daddies as children are naturally inquisitive," said Brian.

"We've been very open from the start and told him every family is different."

Anita Cranmer, cabinet member for children's services at Buckinghamshire Council, said she was "really proud" by the one-in-six statistic.

"In our experience, LGBTQ+ people are often open to adopting children with additional needs, brothers and sisters, children from a different heritage and older children," she said.

The Buckinghamshire statistics are roughly in line with national figures from the Department for Education, with 540 of 2,950 adoptions in England made by same-sex couples in 2021-22.