Young adoptee calls for access to ASGSF for all over-21s

Sarah is a young adoptee on a mission. She can’t understand why adoptees over the age of 21 are excluded from getting therapy through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund in England, if they don’t have an EHCP. She’s started a petition and urges anyone who agrees with her to show their support and sign it. 

I am a young adoptee with ambitions to go to university and have a career that helps people. But I struggle with attachment and trauma and I find relationships difficult. This holds me back in education and in the workplace. 

Recently I’ve been accessing my adoption and care records. There is a lot to for me to process and I need help with that too. I want a better understanding of my life. 

Like lots of adopted young people I don’t have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This means that I am excluded from getting the therapy I need through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund. I’ve tried therapy through the NHS, but I was told that it doesn’t deal with attachment and trauma. The service didn’t really help and didn’t understand me and my needs as an adopted adult. The same goes for bits of support I’ve had in accessing education and work. 

I don’t understand why having an EHCP is the only way for over 21s to access therapy. EHCPs are about supporting young people in education promoting independence in education. Therapy is about much more than that and is needed by young people with and without EHCPS. For me therapy would be about helping me with relationships and attachments, coming to terms with everything that has happened in my life and allowing me to move forward, especially in the workplace. Having EHCPs as a gateway to therapeutic support is unfair. 

If I had stayed in the care system, I would have support until I reach 25. I think I should have the same rights now. I know the government does not have enough money, but I’m sure that supporting adoptees at least to the age of 25 would save money in the long term. More of us would be helped into work. 

If you agree with me that adoptees up to the age of 25 should be able to get funding for therapy, with or without an EHCP, please sign my petition. I would love to get over 10,000 signatures so that parliament must consider what I’m asking for. I want the opportunity to live my best life and so do lots of other adoptees.

Sign Sarah's petition here.