LONDON.- Leading children’s charity Barnardo’s and a host of well known faces have joined forces with acclaimed photographer Cambridge Jones in a pioneering bid to find permanent homes for the thousands of children awaiting adoption across the UK.

Home Time – photography finding a home is an innovative and exciting exhibition which highlights just some of the thousands of children in the care system who have nowhere to call home.

Their stories are the focus of a new exhibition which opened at the Getty Images Gallery in London. High profile names such as Cherie Blair, Bruce Oldfield, Terry O’Neill, Andrew Lincoln, Gail Porter, Laura Bailey and Claudia Winkleman, have so far offered to become guest photographers for the day to get a snapshot of their lives.

Barnardo’s Honorary Vice-President Cherie Blair said: ‘A loving home is the most important factor in giving children the best possible start in life. This is a very imaginative way of bringing individual children to the attention of those who might be able to offer these kids the future they want. But it will also importantly help raise the whole question of adoption and lead, we hope, to thousands more people thinking whether it is an option for them.’

The children are seen as 'hard to place' because some are brothers and sisters and need to stay together; others are older children, from black and minority ethnic communities, over the age of eight or have disabilities.

The concept is based on the successful celebrity Heart Galleries discovered by Cambridge while working in the US. Such is the success of the initiative, that since its inception in one US state in 2001, images of children awaiting adoption are now displayed in public spaces across 40 states every year.

Cambridge Jones, who was himself adopted at the age of two, said: ‘There are thousands of children awaiting adoption and this is just a small sample of the children who desperately need to find permanent families. I wanted to capture this issue in a different way from the norm and to appeal to people who may not have considered adoption to seriously do so.’

To further highlight the need for families, X-Factor runners-up Journey South, who recently discovered they have an adoptive sister, are also releasing a single from their hit album Home, to support the exhibition. The proceeds will go to Barnardo’s.

Martin Narey, Barnardo’s Chief Executive said: ‘This is a fabulous concept with some beautiful shots which show the children in an innovative way. We do hope that this project will get people talking about adoption, visiting the gallery and making enquiries about adoption.’

The exhibition runs at the Getty Images Gallery, 46 Eastcastle Street, London from until May 3.