These large numbers of children waiting for adoption are also matched by similarly large numbers of potential parents wanting to adopt, but it seems that some local authority parctices have precluded the happy solution of reductions in these large numbers on both siders because of perceived mismatches between the children and the possible parents available to them, and also overly critical approaches to the potential adopters in terms of the parson specification sought to be imposed by local authorities placing the children in their care.