Sorry - didn't mean to be as dismissive as that last remark came across on a re-read!

I should realy explain how possitive discrimination works. Lets put some figures to it. If, for instance, a representative area of 1 million people has 50% hetrosexual white couples, 30% hetrosexual black couples, 15% homosexual white couples and 5% homosexial black couples then governmental guidlines say that this proporton MUST be reflected in the number of foster parents being 'taken on'. There are very strict rules on this and heaven help the departmental head who breaks them!

So, say we need 100 foster homes. It means that 50 of them must be hetrosexual white. 30 of them must be hetrosexual black. 15 0f them must be homosexual white and 5 must be homosexual black. So far so good?

OK - we have now had the full allocation of 50 hetro white couples. But only 12 hetro white, only 3 homo white and only 1 homo black have applied. Where do we get the rest from? The rules say that, even if there are another 50 hetro white couples waiting they cannot be taken on.

All governments are full of these ridiculous policies. They impose these restrictions for the best of reasons but they seldom work. Before saying that there are not enough people fostering we need a realy hard look at these ludicrous rules.

Cheers

DtG