Andy Bindon, GLL’s chief officer for Change and Values

HUNDREDS of adoptive families have been given free membership to the Sobell Centre, in an effort to ensure children who have left the care system have better access to sports facilities.

The partnership between children’s charity Coram and GLL was celebrated on Big Adoptive Day on Wednesday, when parents and kids were invited to test out the indoor soft play at the leisure centre in Finsbury Park.

Andy Bindon, GLL’s Change and Values chief and a father-of-seven, told of how his own experience adopting and fostering had made him especially keen to platform the work done by the charity.

He said: “There’s a lot of evidence that within the group of children who have experienced care, health and wellbeing is a big issue. Within that group, they have greater needs, and we thought we could do something by offering some free three-month memberships so that they can come as a family, experience the leisure centre, and do things together.”

Mr Bindon and his wife first decided they wanted to adopt after noticing how many of their son’s peers who had additional needs were in the care system.

“My middle son has learning disabilities and is autistic,” Mr Bindon said. “When he started school, we were really amazed about how many children in the special school were in the care system. We were really surprised, and we felt we were in the position to do something about it.”

That was more than two decades ago, and since then the couple have consistently welcomed foster children into their home.

Mr Bindon recalled his adoptive daughter arriving as an eight-month-old baby on his 43rd birthday as they were preparing to have a party at their house.

Two years later, he and his wife tried to adopt her but were blocked by the council. A legal case followed and was eventually dropped by the local authority on the day barristers arrived in court.

Despite the challenges, Mr Bindon encouraged other families to think about adoption, especially considering there are currently 3,000 children waiting across England for a permanent home.

He warned that tough financial circumstances often acted as a deterrent for families considering adopting and that children’s past traumatic experiences sometimes made the post-adoption process more difficult.

“We would always encourage them [parents] to do it but to go into it with their eyes open and to really talk to other adoptive families about their experience because it’s not an easy thing to do,” Mr Bindon said. “It’s very rewarding, it’s made my birth children better people, and we love our daughter to bits”.

Meanwhile, Dame Carol Homden, CEO of Coram, said: “We are delighted to collaborate with GLL this Big Adoption Day and to highlight this wonderful offer for adoptive families across the country. We know this will make a huge difference for families, enabling them to enjoy activities together and helping to boost their physical and mental wellbeing.”

Joseph Rham, GLL customer and communities director, added: “When we became aware of the research undertaken by Coram showing that care-experienced children often miss out, we wanted to help, both by promoting Big Adoption Day and providing free access to our leisure facilities to adoptive families.”