It is a tragedy that so many children are in desperate need of people to adopt them.

The charity Barnardo’s is today warning that the influx of children who need placing with parents is reaching crisis levels.

There are 150 children in the Yorkshire region currently in need of adoption – if they are not adopted, they face spending their childhood in and out of foster care.

And while fostering is a very helpful short-term solution, it certainly cannot offer these youngsters the long-term support and security they so desperately crave.

Part of the reason for the recent influx in children being taken into care is the horrific Baby P case in Haringey, which has lead to an increase in youngsters being removed quicker from at-risk homes.

That sadly has created this backlog of children for whom homes need to be found.

If anyone has ever considered adoption then now would be an ideal time as the demand is growing by the day.

And Barnardo’s has made it clear that anyone can apply to be an adoptive parent, including same-sex couples, unmarried couples and people living on their own.

No one is pretending that, if accepted, that it will be easy – and the real demand at the moment is for adoptive parents to older children, something many would-be adopters sometimes shy away from.

But the rewards are potentially incredible.

By making the choice, you could make a real difference to the life of a child who might otherwise be shunted from foster home to care home all their lives.

And that is something that anyone would be proud of achieving in their life.