'Love should be enough'

The children's charity NCH says councils are being too stringent in matching the ethnicity of children with prospective adoptive parents.

One adoptee shares her views on having white parents, and a white woman tells of her experiences trying to adopt.

Hannah Neate said life with white parents had not caused any problems

Hannah Neate, 22, was adopted from Sri Lanka when she was four months old by a white British couple who had travelled there specifically to adopt her.

Her un-wed biological mother had been unable to support her while living in a shack with her own mother and brother, and Hannah says that "for my own good" she was put her up for adoption.

For her, living in Britain since with a white family has not caused any serious problems.

"I've had more racist abuse for being dark than for having white parents.

"I did go through a phase of dying my hair blonde, but that was probably because I lived in Winchester and it's a predominantly white area."

But there have been a few odd situations for her older brothers, the older white offspring of her adoptive parents.

If a child needs a home, then it's just the love that counts Hannah Neate Adoption matches 'too stringent'

"When I meet my brothers' friends they usually have a few questions for me and for them. And I have heard remarks about whether I'm my father's young bride or my brother's younger girlfriend."

Her parents, who are now divorced, actively encouraged Hannah to learn about her Sri Lankan culture - with no luck.

"I was really not interested. I kind of shunned my ethnicity. It gets to the point where it's just not a part of me. At the end of the day it's just a colour."

She did once travel to Sri Lanka to find out more about her origins, but the office which held her adoption documents had burnt down.

Official statistics show babies from ethnic minority backgrounds spend an average of 10 months in care before being adopted, compared to just 3 and a half months for other babies.

From the perspective of her own positive experience of adoption, Ms Neate said councils should not dwell on ethnicity to the detriment of the child.

"If a child needs a home, then it's just the love that counts. That probably sounds corny, but that's all that matters."

Hannah added: "I, personally, think that race should not be the reason why children are not adopted. It's so foolish when there are millions of couples who want children and millions of children who want parents."

'Disconcerting and discriminatory'

One of those couples was a woman and her husband, both white British.

When they started the process 18 months ago they were told they would never be considered for a non-white child.

"We haven't even mentioned ethnicity on the form, so it was a bit disconcerting really.

"We had said the we'd have any child, and be prepared to bring it up and tell them about their own culture.

"It seemed almost discriminatory towards us [to not consider non-white children]," the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the BBC.

They have successfully adopted children now, but if there had been problems with adopting white children, she said "we would have taken things further with social services to find out why" they could not adopt non-white children.

"Ethnicity doesn't really matter as long as there is a home and we continue to teach them about their culture and heritage. We have white British children, but we're raising them in a multicultural Britain."