Adoption agencies have experienced a "surprisingly high" number of inquiries from prospective parents in lockdown, an adoption charity has said.

Speaking to Press Association, Dr Sue Armstrong Brown, chief executive of Adoption UK, said that the pandemic has prompted an unexpected number of people considering adopting a child.

Dr Armstrong Brown explained that she thinks the number of inquiries is due to people having more time in lockdown to “think about what they really want in life”.

“We are observing that inquiry levels from prospective adopters looking to start the process have remained quite buoyant, which is very encouraging and not necessarily what was expected,” she said.

“The interpretation of that is this lockdown has given people some breathing space to assess their lives and consider what they want to do – a bit of thinking time.”

Roughly 3,000 children are adopted in England each year, but due to the coronavirus outbreak, many couples in the midst of adopting have been unable to complete the process due to social distancing and lockdown rules.

Dr Armstrong Brown went on to discuss how delays in the adoption process can negatively impact the children involved.

“That would have been very confusing and difficult to understand,” she added.

“Right now we are right up against it and it’s not always obvious what the consequences of the pandemic will be.

“I suspect we are going to see more people in trouble, because of job losses.

“But also I think more people will be coming forward to adopt because they have had the time to think about what they really want in life and decided adopting is interesting to them.”

She added that she was “surprised” by the level of interest in adoption but also “very encouraged”.

“It’s a fantastic sign of people’s optimism and resilience that they are – in such uncertain times – being able to think about taking such a major step.”

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