Almost three months on from the Government confirming funding for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) for this financial year, families across England are continuing to feel the impact of the delayed announcement and subsequent cuts to the Fair Access Limit (FAL), assessments, and match-funding.

Around 40% of adoptive families tell us they face severe challenges. In recent weeks calls to Adoption UK’s advice line have highlighted the impact the cuts to the ASGSF are already having. One family has experienced the devastation of the child leaving the home prematurely because of their therapy ending. Others say they have been pushed to the edge of coping because their child’s support has ended or been dramatically reduced. These are not isolated examples. They are echoed by many similar experiences covered in national media in recent weeks.

Key issues for the ASGSF

Despite the last three months of campaigning by Adoption UK, Action Against ASGSF Changes, CVAA, Kinship and others, hundreds of meetings, parliamentary questions, debates, and sympathetic reassurances from policymakers, the silence from the Department for Education (DfE) about the future of the Fund is deafening for families. Compounding this, there is little real evidence that policymakers are systematically monitoring the impacts of the backlog in applications, or the impact of cuts to funding.

There are three key issues:

1. The impact of the delay in announcing the Fund for this financial year

After a delayed announcement of the ASGSF for this financial year, the Minister has sought to reassure that applications are ‘now being processed as quickly as possible’.

However, we hear from social workers this is now taking Mott MacDonald, the commissioned provider, around six weeks to process - from around one week back in December. We urge the DfE to work with the sector to ensure funding is immediately accessible for those children reaching crisis point. It is also vital that the DfE work with Mott MacDonald to closely monitor the impact of the backlog of applications, and this information should be made available for parliamentary scrutiny.

Poor communication from the DfE is causing added confusion and anger amongst families. Considering how important the ASGSF is to thousands of people, it should not be too much to ask the Department to create a web page directed at families and providers, giving clear updates and an FAQ covering all aspects of the Fund.

2. Cuts to the ASGSF for this financial year without warning, consultation or evidence base, and the impact this is having

The rationale behind the 40% cuts to the FAL, as well as cuts to assessments and match funding for the most complex cases, remain largely contested by many in the sector and families with lived experience. The Minister has repeatedly promised an Equalities Impact Assessment will be added to the House of Commons library for the record, but months on, this has still not been made available. In response to debates and written questions the Minister has repeatedly said the cuts were necessary because of an increase in demand and departmental overspend.

The government remains of the position that the reduced amount of £3,000 will be enough to offer a ‘significant’ package of support for adoptees. When asked in a parliamentary question what evidence her Department had used to come to this figure, the Minister responded:

“The department took a range of factors into account when setting the new £3,000 fair access limit for the ASGSF. In the 2024/25 financial year, the average cost per ASGSF recipient was £3,170 for therapy and £2,399 for specialist assessments (£3,090 overall). In addition, since July 2024, the department has collected detailed data on the costs of applications for therapeutic interventions and specialist assessments funded by the ASGSF. Using this information, the department assessed that £3,000 could fund an average of 19-20 hours of therapy, on the basis of median hourly rates for contact time and allowing for additional costs”.

With an assessment costing on average £2,399, this leaves just £601 for therapy. Going by the median hourly rates calculated by the Department above, including costs, this equates to 4 hours left for therapy in a year. Whilst not every application will require an assessment, many will. The government appears to be content that applicants to the ASGSF who would benefit from an assessment of need this year, can either choose between an assessment or therapy. The Minister continues:

“Where ASGSF funding has been used for a specialist assessment, remaining funding up to the £3,000 fair access limit may be used for therapy, where this is assessed as being needed. If appropriate, local authorities and regional adoption agencies may use their own funding to offer extra therapy.”

If ministers are seriously expecting local authorities to plug this gap, they need to issue them with clear guidance about the importance of therapeutic adoption support as part of their duty to provide adoption support services. In the meantime, it is imperative that data is collected from local authorities setting out what funding they are providing for therapeutic support and assessments, and to what extent this is being rejected. We have only heard reports of families reaching out the their local authority and being told they simply do not have funding available.

Adoption UK would like to see an immediate reversal in the cuts, including restating the FAL to £5,000 and separate funding for specialist assessments.

3.           The unknown future for therapeutic support beyond this financial year

In April, the government committed £50M to the ASGSF for this financial year. The Minister had repeatedly confirmed that future funding would be subject to the June 2025 Spending Review, which sets out government spending over the next three financial years. Yet despite around £2 billion being invested in children’s social care, there were no commitments on adoption support.

With demand for the ASGSF reportedly increasing, and an overspend in the last year, the DfE is under pressure to review and to potentially reform it. Adoption England has published an options paper, setting out four potential models for how the Fund might be administered in the future: centrally (as it currently is, albeit with some improvements); pan-regionally, administered by Adoption England; via RAAs directly; or via Local Authorities.

Adoption UK do not support calls for a devolved fund. We have seen no evidence that this will improve the support adoptees and their families receive. We are calling for the continuation of a central model of delivery, which allows for a level of transparency, accountability and consistency in support services for families. We would also like to see improvements to that model so that every child receives the support they need to thrive. We will publish more on this imminently.

Most importantly, we cannot support any substantial changes to the system without meaningful consultation with adopted people and their families, whose lives are so intimately affected by the decisions being made by civil servants far removed from the realities and complexities of modern adoption. We believe that collectively, working with families and the sector, policymakers can achieve positive change, but this should not be hurried or driven by short term cost cutting – the wellbeing of too many is at stake.

A year ago, the government made a commitment to adoption in their manifesto. To date, they are failing to deliver on that commitment. The 7^th Adoption Barometer report, to be published on September 9^th, will starkly evidence the need for more support, not less. It is time for the government to deliver what they have promised.

 

Katharine Slocombe

Policy and Public Affairs Advisor, Adoption UK