The British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) is concerned that too many ethnic minority children are left in care homes or with temporary foster families while social workers try to find families to match their precise ethnic and religious background. It believes that the problem could be worsening as the ethnicity of children becomes more complex.

Speaking to The Times, John Simmonds, the BAAF policy director, urged local authorities and adoption agencies to balance the desire to find a family that understands a child's heritage and ethnicity with evidence that shows poor outcomes for children who spend time in the care system.

“Twenty years ago it was a case of finding an Afro-Caribbean family for an Afro-Caribbean child,” he said. “Today many children have a very complex heritage. A child may be half Afro-Caribbean and half Asian, and also a Muslim. Local authorities and agencies need to be flexible and thoughtful about how children's needs can be met. Remember the risks are high, too, if the child stays in the care system.”

White families eager to adopt a child have recently voiced frustration that they are never considered as suitable parents for ethnic minority children. In the US social workers are prevented by law from giving weight to race in their adoption work.

Mr Simmonds said that a white family should not automatically be prohibited from adopting an ethnic minority child, although it clearly presented problems for the child.

BAAF is so concerned that ethnic minority children in care are waiting an unnecessarily long time that they have convened a conference on the issue with local authorities and adoption agencies this week. Ethnic minority children are over-represented in the care system. Just under 80 per cent of those in the system are white compared with 87 per cent of the overall population. The Government has commissioned a report into the issue. BAAF said that ethnic minority children almost always stay in care longer than white children, and a greater proportion were not adopted at all.

Sue Cotton, head of adoption services at the NCH children's charity, said that allowing a white family to adopt an ethnic minority child was not practical. “When we talk to couples we explain they have to meet all the child's needs, and ethnicity is one of their needs. They would struggle to meet that, no matter how well-meaning and understanding they are.”

Research from Julia Feast, a leading expert in adoption and reunions, found that 71 per cent of children in transracial adoptions said that they always “felt different” from the rest of their family compared with 48 per cent in same-race placements. They attempted to find their natural parents at a far younger age.

CASE STUDY — I WAITED FOR A HINDU SON

Rosemary Bennett

Sejal Patel was prepared to wait for a child who was Indian and Hindu, like her. After a horrific pregnancy and birth, and the loss of two triplets, Mrs Patel, 34, was told not to have any more children. But she and her husband Kan, 38, longed for a bigger family, so began the long adoption process in 2005.

The family was turned down by their local authority in North London — social workers said they had no Asian children needing to be placed — so the Patels turned to the charity NCH, which has a programme for ethnic minority families.

“Our parents felt strongly that a child should have the same background as us. I would have felt awkward doing that with a child from a different religion,” she said. “I also had to consider what would happen if we adopted, say, a Muslim boy who then wanted to find his birth parents.”

They waited more than a year after approval. “We rejected many children because they weren't Hindu. That was terrible. But as soon as I saw a picture of our son I knew he was the one.”

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