16 May 2025

The Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF). This provides funds to local authorities and regional adoption agencies to pay for, what the DfE itself recognises are, essential therapeutic services for eligible adoptive, special guardianship order (SGO) and child arrangement order (CAO) families. The year-to-year continuation of the fund is announced in the latter part of each financial year. But not this year.

Adoptive and kinship parents waited anxiously for the children’s minister, Janet Daby, to announce the continuation of the ASGSF throughout February and March. Many wrote to their MPs expressing their concern that no announcement had been made as we hurtled towards the end of the financial year and the looming expiry of the fund on 31 March 2025. It caused chaos for providers unable to plan for the 2025/26 financial year and led to vital support being paused, whilst we all held our breath.

The relief was palpable when, thanks to Munira Wilson repeatedly highlighting the issue in Parliament, an announcement was finally made on 1 April 2025. Parents, charities, campaigners, and therapy providers around the country breathed a collectively sigh of relief. However, relief has turned into dismay, anger, devastation, and a sense of abandonment.

What’s happened?

On 14 April the government announced that there would be significant changes to the ASGSF, without, it seems, any impact assessment:

• Cut - the ‘Fair Access Limit’, which is used to pay for essential services, has been cut from £5,000 to £3,000 per child per year (about 40%).
• Gone - The separate allocation of up to £2,500 per child per year for specialist assessments has been completely removed.
• Gone - Match fund support for children with an exceptional level of need has also been removed. Previously the ASGSF provided up to 50% of the funding for up to £30,000 per child, with the rest provided by the local authority. 

So, what does this mean?

It means any new specialist assessment will need to be paid for out of the £3,000 Fair Access Limit. If the child or young person, or the family, needs therapeutic care and support they will only be able to access whatever is left after the assessment, regardless of their level of need. This will likely result in long gaps between assessment and support (leading to needs becoming greater) or patchy (and ineffective as a result) provision.

It means families previously able to access essential, appropriate, and consistent support will not going forward. Those with attachment and trauma needs often require sustained and regular support, and building trust with a therapist can take time. The new reality is that children and young people, and their families, will not be able to access what they need. The funding has dropped but needs haven’t.

It means children with the most complex needs face a very uncertain future, as do their families.  

No quick fixes

Adopted and other care-experienced children often need support throughout their lives. There are no quick fixes when supporting traumatised children and young people. Many have experienced multiple and profound losses, abuse and neglect, and feel the lasting impact of addiction, domestic violence, and mental illness within their birth families.

An adoption, SGO or CAO is not a magic wand - it does not wave away trauma. Families need, and deserve, the necessary support to enable children and young people not just to survive, but to thrive in their families, schools, and communities. Research shows that in previous years the ASGSF changed lives.

Cut now, pay later

The children’s minister says these changes maximise the number of children able to access the fund, in the context of growing need. 'Need’ is my word; Ms Daby prefers ‘demand’, an alienating and harmful narrative we have also started to see in the arena of special educational needs (SEN).

Access to (less) funds is not the same as meeting needs.

At IPSEA we know that previously looked after children and young people are more likely to have SEN, and cutting funds means more children and young people’s needs won’t be met. The longer term economic, societal, and personal costs of this are significant.

As a result of needs not being met, we expect more children and young people will face further barriers to their learning, and, to name but a few, we will see:

1. more children and young people needing SEN Support or EHC plans, leading to further costs for schools and local authorities
2. exclusions rising even higher for this cohort, with significant societal as well as personal costs, and
3. more children out of school due to school anxiety, leading to more local authorities being required to provide suitable alternative education for those of compulsory school age.

We also know from speaking with families that child to parent violence, a complex and challenging situation which disproportionally affects this community, may well rise, and more family placements may be at risk due to needs not being therapeutically met, a heartbreaking travesty for all involved.

The costs are just too high, and those most affected will be the people the fund is designed to support.

What can parents do?

Write to your MP to express your concerns. You can use a template letter to help you.

Make your voice count – sign a petition calling on the government to reverse the cuts.

Join a free webinar on 28 May, hosted by Adoption UK, where you can ask questions and learn more about the cuts.

Get support. We have free helplines and services and a range of guides and template letters for parents of children and young people with SEN.

Know what the law says about SEN and special educational provision. SEN is broad and includes sensory needs, social, emotional and mental health needs, and communication and interaction needs as well as cognition and learning challenges. Therapy can be treated as special educational provision if it educates or trains your child in some way. If so, it can (and must, if required) be included in Section F of an EHC plan. Once specified, the local authority must secure it (regardless of cost).  This could include sensory attachment intervention, speech and language therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy or dyadic developmental psychotherapy for example if it has an educating or training element and is meeting SEN.  

Cut now, pay later – it's no way to meet needs.

 

About the author

Kate is a member of IPSEA's legal team and an adoptive parent to children with SEN. As a member of the legal team, Kate provides legal support to volunteers and supervises their helpline and Tribunal Support Service work. She also writes monthly updates for the volunteers, ensuring they are kept up to date with legal and policy changes. She helps maintain IPSEA’s legal resources and briefings, and provides training to parents, carers and professionals. Kate also supports the policy team in their work. In her spare time, Kate loves to have her nose in a new book, get outside and exercise, and play with her two sons.

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