A leading children’s charity is making a desperate plea for adopters to come forward after becoming inundated with children who need new homes.

Barnardo’s is receiving referrals for children daily, including those as young as nine months, who face a life in and out of foster and care homes, if they cannot be placed in a “forever” home. Across Yorkshire there are 150 youngsters waiting to be adopted.

It is not known how many of those are from Bradford.

Dot Jarvis, the charity’s assistant director for family placements at Barnardo's in West Yorkshire, urged anyone thinking about taking a baby or child on to contact them, including same sex couples, couples living together and those living alone.

She said since the Baby P tragedy, when a 17-month-old boy died in London after suffering more than 50 injuries over an eight-month period, when he was repeatedly seen by Haringey Children's services and NHS health professionals, more children were being taken out of at risk homes, creating a backlog for charities and local authorities.

“We are in desperate need of adopters,” she said. “We are getting profiles of children through daily.

“But we are now saying we need to keep Yorkshire children in Yorkshire because we know from research children fare better in their own cultural surroundings. We can base a youngster from Leeds in Scarborough and they will still be within their own cultural identity.

“We cannot help the local authorities place children if we do not have the adopters. So we are pleading with people to come forward.”

Councillor Ralph Berry, the executive member for Children’s Services at Bradford Council, said that it was a fantastic thing for someone to do for the life of a child.

“We have been promoting fostering and adoption to make people come forward,” he added. “We have had a 70 per cent adoption rate increase in Bradford. Our issue is that some children available for adoption have special needs.”

Those wishing to adopt can call (01274) 496937 or visit www.barnardos.org.uk.