A CAMPAIGN has been launched to encourage couples to consider adopting.

For the first time, approved adoption agency DFW Adoption is urging prospective parents to come forward by advertising on buses in County Durham.

Director Sue Rayner said there were thousands of children in the North-East who needed loving homes.

She said: "A lot of these children are in foster care and they will be there for a long time until they get the right long-term family.

"They are left in limbo with the chance they might get a home but they do not know when or who with."

Ms Rayner said the service no longer primarily matched up couples with babies, and that part of the challenge was finding homes for two or three siblings who had been abandoned or taken into care.

She said: "It is awful having to split families up, so we try to place brothers and sisters together, but it is difficult to find people who will take two or three children.

"There is a lot of support for those who do, and there is financial help available."

DFW would like to hear from those interested in adopting. Call 0191-386 3719 or go to www.dfw-adoption.org