After this article was published, the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund was confirmed for another year, with £50m in funding. Get the latest on the ASGSF here.

The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) has expired today (31 March 2025), with no news on its future.

The Department for Education said today that it would “set out more details on the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund as soon as possible”, while children’s minister Janet Daby reported that announcements on ASGSF funding from April 2025 would be made “shortly”. 

The statements echo several issued by Daby in response to written parliamentary questions over the past two months, and Keir Starmer’s response to a question on the ASGSF in Parliament last week.

Therapies cease for thousands of children

The lack of a decision means therapy for thousands of children and families will cease, with large numbers of new applications for services left on hold, as the government continues to defer an announcement on the ASGSF’s future.

In 2023-24, 16,970 therapy applications were approved for services including creative and physical therapies, family therapy, psychotherapy, parent training and therapeutic life story work.

Therapy providers and adoption leaders have warned that abruptly ending support for former looked-after children with significant levels of trauma poses significant risks to them and their parents and carers, and would likely trigger large numbers of placement breakdowns.

While therapy is continuing for some children and families whose services started in the latter part of 2024-25, they represent a small minority, say providers.

And though some regional adoption agencies (RAAs) have developed multidisciplinary teams that deliver therapeutic support, they are not resourced to replace ASGSF-funded provision.

‘Devastating for children and families’

In a written parliamentary answer published today, Daby said the DfE would “shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how we will allocate the department’s budget for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) are being made as part of these discussions.”

However, should the DfE provide ASGSF funding for 2025-26, families will face long waits for support because of the backlog applications, warn campaigners. At the same time, therapy providers have taken on other work, risking a loss of capacity to provide ASGSF-funded provision should it restart, according to Adoption England, the national support body for RAAs.

Sector charity Adoption UK described the lack of news on the ASGSF’s future as “devastating for children, and for the families and the professionals who care for them”.

After this article was published, the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund was confirmed for another year, with £50m in funding. Get the latest on the ASGSF here.

Keir Starmer has failed to confirm the future of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), with the scheme to provide therapy for children and families just days from ending.

He was questioned about the ASGSF – worth £50m a year – at prime minister’s questions (PMQs) this week by LLiberal Democrat spokesperson for education, children and families Munira Wilson.

She said the adopted daughter of one of her constituents had been receiving “much-needed therapy” through the fund to help her recover from “immense trauma”, but was now among “thousands” who did not know whether they would get more help, with the ASGSF due to expire on 31 March.

Starmer fails to confirm fund’s future

Wilson said ministers had “repeatedly refused to confirm” whether the fund would continue and asked Starmer: “Can the prime minister give a cast-iron guarantee to vulnerable children, adoptive parents and kinship carers that he will not cut that fund?”

However, in response, the prime minister merely said the government would “set out the details just as soon as we can”, an answer that has been given repeatedly by children’s minister Janet Daby in response to multiple parliamentary questions.

The ASGSF funds specialist assessments and therapy for adopted children, those placed for adoption, former looked-after children cared for under special guardianship or child arrangements orders, and those whose permanence placements had broken down.

Prime minister links ASGSF and welfare reform

However, Starmer appeared to characterise it as part of the welfare system and link its future to the government’s reforms to disability and incapacity benefits.

“The welfare scheme overall is not defendable on terms, but it must be one that supports those who need it,” he told Wilson, adding that this should be on the “basis of the principles that I set out earlier”.

The “principles” appeared to be those Starmer gave in response to an earlier question from the SNP’s Stephen Flynn related to the government’s plans to tighten eligibility for the main working-age disability benefit, personal independence payment, and cut the level of incapacity benefits.

“We need to give support to those who need it, we need to help those who want to work into work, and we need to be clear that those who can work should work,” the prime minister replied.

In a post on X following PMQs, Wilson described Starmer’s failure to confirm the fund’s continuation as “very disappointing”.

The fund’s rules stipulate that therapy can be provided for up to 12 months – or until a £5,000 annual limit has been exhausted – after which the relevant council or regional adoption agency (RAA) must reapply on behalf of the relevant child or family.

‘Small proportion’ will therapy services beyond 31 March

In her responses to parliamentary questions, Daby has repeatedly pointed to a provision that enables families whose ASGSF funding was agreed in the latter part of 2024-25 to be able to continue therapy into 2025-26, meaning their services would not end on 31 March.

However, this applies to a very small proportion of recipients, said Jay Vaughan, chief executive of Family Futures, a voluntary adoption agency and therapy provider.

“What [Daby] is referring to is that, for about 2% of families, if they got funding in the latter part of the financial year, they can get split funding [carried over into the next financial year],” she said. “But that’s not allowed for 98% of families. Their contract and their work ends on 31 March.”

It is not known how many are affected, but 16,970 applicants were awarded therapy in 2023-24.

A similar point to Vaughan’s was made by sector charity Adoption UK, whose chief executive, Emily Frith, said: “The promise of funds for therapy being rolled over into the next financial year was welcome, but in reality applications have been backing up for some time and this does nothing for those who didn’t get their applications extended in time, or for many making new applications in the run up to March.”

‘The most traumatised children in society’

Family Futures, Adoption UK and several other organisations have been raising increasing concerns in recent weeks about the impact on children with significant trauma, and their families, of uncertainty over their ongoing therapy or services abruptly coming to an end.

Vaughan said there were the “most traumatised children in society”, and a withdrawal of services risked placements being disrupted and young people re-entering the care system.

“Some of those families are in a terrible state, really close to the edge of disruption. We’re talking pre-order, where they’re not even sure if they can proceed with the adoption.

“Some of them we’ve got have a high level of violence, where the parent doesn’t know if they can keep going. Some are children who are suicidal, who are self-harming, who somehow don’t meet the criteria for Camhs. All of those have nothing [come 31 March].”

She said the situation had been exacerbated by therapists not being able to prepare children and families for sessions coming to an end, because providers had repeatedly been given assurances over the past few months that an announcement confirming the fund’s continuation into 2025-26 was imminent.

Level of uncertainty ‘unacceptable’

Frith issued a similar message, saying that the situation was “creating additional anxiety and distress for children and families dealing with complex trauma”.

“This level of uncertainty is unacceptable when we are talking about children who have already experienced so much disruption in their lives,” she added.

Should the fund continue, councils and RAAs have pre-loaded applications onto the ASGSF’s portal, which could then be considered, said Adoption England, the national support body for RAAs.

However, Vaughan said there would be a “huge backlog” of applications for the fund – delivered by consultancy Mott MacDonald, on behalf of the Department for Education – to go through.

Therapists taking on other work, leaving potential gap in provision

Meanwhile, therapy providers who have historically delivered support through the fund are taking on other work, potentially leaving a gap in provision should the ASGSF continue.

“RAAs do have providers who are moving to take alternative work and reduce the capacity they hold for ASGSF, and therefore we are at risk of losing sufficiency in the local market that RAAs have worked hard to achieve,” said Adoption England.

“RAAs are undertaking work, funded by the DfE, to look at regional sufficiency and commissioning arrangements, and providers are clear that the delay in decision making regarding ongoing funding of the ASGSF does risk being able to achieve this.”

Vaughan added: “I’m aware of other agencies making mass redundancies. I’m aware of lone providers, who have mortgages and children, who are thinking, ‘I have no work’, because we’re all dependent on one funding stream.”

Alternative sources of funding and provision

Adoption England said there were “no other streams of funding for therapeutic support, other than the local NHS provision that is available for all children”, though RAAs were “continually developing their adoption support provision” and some had multi-disciplinary teams who deliver ASGSF-funded work.

Vaughan said that Family Futures had been given a donation to help continue services for children and families post-31 March 2025, while one RAA had offered the agency interim funding.

However, she added: “But that’s one out of the country.”

For Adoption UK, Frith said: “We would like to see the Department for Education communicate clearly with families about the support they are entitled to and to issue clear guidance to therapists and agency staff so that they can effectively advise parents and carers on the best course of action.”

ASGSF ‘must be extended’ – directors’ body 

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services, meanwhile, joined the calls for the fund to be renewed.

Nigel Minns, chair of the association’s health, care and additional needs policy committee, said the ASGSF provided “essential therapy” and “must be extended to provide longer term certainty for all those involved, including children, families, providers and local authorities”.

“Alongside this, the fund needs to be made more accessible and widened out, to avoid breaks in therapy and ensure more children and families get the help and support they need when it is needed,” he added.

Thousands of vulnerable children risk losing access to vital therapy with the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) set to expire at the end of this month.

That was the claim from psychological support providers in a statement that warned that the breaks in therapy that many children now faced risked deepening their trauma and undermining placement stability.

ASGSF therapy funding lasts for up to 12 months, or when the typical £5,000 limit has expired, and local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAA) must reapply each year to continue support for children and families.

In 2023-24, 16,970 therapy applications were approved for services including creative and physical therapies, family therapy, psychotherapy, parent training and therapeutic life story work.

‘Too late’ to apply for funding

However, with no Department for Education (DfE) funding committed beyond 31 March 2025, such applications can only be made for services starting or renewing before the end of this month.

According to charity Adoption UK, it is already too late to make an application before the deadline, meaning many existing services are set to stop even if DfE funding is announced for 2025-26.

Last week’s statement was issued by six therapy providers: Anna Freud in London, Beacon House (West Sussex), Family Futures (London), The Family Place (the Midlands and Devon), Gateway Psychology (Staffordshire) and TouchBase (East Sussex).

They said the AGSCF had been “crucial” in helping adopted children and those who left care under a special guardianship order (SGO) recover from trauma, neglect and abuse.

‘Emotional toll of uncertainty is immense’

“Trauma recovery work is all about facilitating safety, security and stability, “said  Louise Michelle Bombèr, founding director of TouchBase.

“We are being prevented from providing this with breaks in therapy now expected. The families we work with are committed to their children but gravely concerned about the impact this break will have upon mental health and wellbeing.”

Jay Vaughan, chief executive and co-founder of Family Futures, added: “Our experience demonstrates that delays in therapy have a direct and detrimental impact on the safety and stability of adoptive and special guardianship placements, placing the children we support at significant risk.

“The emotional toll of this uncertainty is immense. Our families are experiencing a significant and unnecessary increase in stress and worry, exacerbating their already stressful home lives which will have long-lasting consequences for their wellbeing.”

They urged the government to confirm funding arrangements for the ASGSF for April 2025 onwards.

‘Most families set to lose support’

Separately, Surrey-based occupational therapy provider The Sensory Smart Child Ltd said that just 18 of the 123 children it supports through ASGSF funding had support confirmed beyond April 2025.

In an open letter to education secretary Bridget Phillipson, children’s minister Janet Daby and local MPs, its director, Karen Garner, said: “This means that 105 families are now in limbo, fearing the devastating impact that a sudden loss of support will have on their children’s progress, wellbeing and stability.

“This uncertainty is unsettling for everyone—the families who do not yet know if they will have access to funding beyond March, the children who we need to prepare to avoid an abrupt end to their therapy, and the therapists who dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to supporting these young people.”

She called for an “immediate and clear update on the status of this funding”, warning that “families cannot wait any longer”.

ASGSF support ‘a lifeline’

Adoption UK has also issued an open letter to Phillipson, which delivered a similar message.

Chief executive Emily Frith said the charity was receiving an increasing number of calls and emails from families worried about their children’s futures should therapy cease.

She quoted one family as describing the fund as a “lifeline” in supporting their adopted daughter, with their placement on the verge of breakdown.

“If the ASGSF was to discontinue it would have very serious repercussions for our family – and in the end would cost the government thousands of pounds more when we can no longer look after her at home,” the family said.

Urging Phillipson to confirm future ASGSF funding “without further delay”, Frith added: “There is a significant economic imperative in investing in therapeutic support as well as a moral one. There should be no doubt the cost to the Treasury will be far greater if the number of adoptive families facing crises continues to rise.”

MPs raising questions about fund’s future

The concerns come with MPs increasingly raising the issue in Parliament.

In a response to a parliamentary question from fellow Labour MP Rachael Maskell, issued on 29 January 2025, children’s minister Janet Daby said a decision on the fund would be made “as soon as possible”.

“The department will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how its budget will be allocated for the next financial year,” she said at the time. “All decisions regarding the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) are being made as part of these discussions. An announcement will be made as soon as possible.”

On 6 March, in a written response to three MPs’ questions about whether the fund should be made permanent or renewed, Daby referred them to the answer she gave on 29 January. On 7 March, she reiterated the statement from 29 January in response to a question from Liberal Democrat MP Freddie van Mierlo and referred his fellow Lib Dem Manuela Perteghella to her previous answer.

Research into ASGSF’s impact

Daby gave a fuller response, last week, to a question from Lib Dem MP Cameron Thomas on the DfE’s assessment of the impact of the ASGSF so far, along with whether funding would continue beyond March 2025.

Daby cited a DfE commissioned study from 2018-21, which found that most parents or guardians felt the support received through the fund had been helpful or very helpful and were positive about the extent to which positive changes had been sustained six months after services finished.

She added that the department had started collecting data on outcomes from ASGSF-funded therapies at the end of 2023, which would “give an overall picture of their impact and adequacy”.

However, in relation to future funding, Daby reiterated the line she gave on 29 January.

Sector bodies have voiced concerns about the future of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), with the government having failed to confirm funding beyond March 2025.

Under the ASGSF, currently worth £48m a year, councils and regional adoption agencies (RAA) apply for funding for therapeutic support for adopted children, those placed with a family awaiting adoption or those who have left care under a special guardianship order (SGO) or child arrangements order (CAO).

If applications are approved, families may receive up to £2,500 per child for a specialist assessment and £5,000 per child for therapy annually, limits that can be exceeded in exceptional circumstances.

Funding lasts for up to a year, with councils and RAAs having to reapply to continue services for families. In 2023-24, almost 19,495 funding applications from RAAs and councils were approved, mostly for therapies.

Delay ‘very tough on families’

As things stand, the Department for Education, via delivery partner Mott MacDonald, will approve applications for services that start before the end of March 2025 – and extend for up to a further year – but not beyond.

“The delay in confirming funding for the ASGSF for the next financial year is very tough on families,” said charity Adoption UK’s director of public affairs and communications, Alison Woodhead.

“Thousands of children could be facing a sudden break in support, which is likely to mean many backwards steps in the difficult journeys they are on to understand and recover from their experience of trauma and loss.”

Funding ‘cliff edge’ leaves ‘uncertain future’

Woodhead referred to the fact that previous extensions to the ASGSF – for 2021-22 and 2022-25 – had been announced towards the end of the previous financial year.

She added: “This cliff edge in support every Treasury spending round can also impact the trust a child has worked hard to develop with their therapist. Waits for ASGSF funded support are already lengthy, but families waiting to start therapy are now facing an even more uncertain future.”

The concerns echo those voiced by the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA) in a report published in October last year.

This warned that the uncertainty around the ASGSF was “causing much anxiety for families parenting children with complex needs” and widening gaps between children’s treatment sessions, which it described as “destabilising and wasteful”.

The same message was relayed by Ofsted in a report last year based on inspections of six RAAs. It said that uncertainty over the future funding of the scheme had prevented adopters from making long-term plans for their children’s needs.

Announcement on funding due shortly – minister

In a response to a parliamentary question, issued last week, children’s minister Janet Daby said a decision on the fund was due shortly.

“The department will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how its budget will be allocated for the next financial year.

“All decisions regarding the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) are being made as part of these discussions. An announcement will be made as soon as possible.”

‘Vital’ importance of therapies in helping children make sense of past

Children’s charity and adoption agency Coram, which hosts London-based RAA Ambitious for Adoption, stressed the “vital” importance of therapeutic services that understand the needs of children who have “faced sudden losses, being separated from their birth parents and their homes and have had additional abusive experiences within these relationships”.

Dr Anna Harris, clinical psychologist and head of Coram’s creative therapies team, said: “Often, the pain they’ve experienced is stored in their bodies and minds in ways we don’t always see. This can show up in emotional reactions, behaviors, and relationship struggles, even if they don’t have the words to explain what they are going through.

“These services provide the right support to help children make sense of their past experiences, and more importantly, help them find hope for their future.”

However, the fund has also faced criticisms.

Criticisms of support fund

Practitioners have described the administrative process as a “burden”, according to report on adoption support commissioning published by RAA support body Adoption England in November 2024.

This included completing a complicated and time-consuming application process, finding and vetting providers, handling invoices and overseeing contracts and the quality of services, the report said.

The paper also reported criticisms of the fact that funding could not be extended beyond a year, even when therapy was ongoing, and said eligibility criteria were “restrictive and inflexible to the emerging and evolving needs of children and young people”.

The report urged the DfE and Adoption England to review eligibility criteria, the application process and interventions accessible through the fund.

ASGSF ‘needs radical reform’

Meanwhile, the charity Kinship, while calling on the DfE to confirm funding beyond March 2025, said that the ASGSF needed “radical reform”.

From 2019-24, 84% of approved applications were to fund support for children in domestic adoption placements, with just 14% for those on SGOs, despite more children leaving care via the latter route during this time. In 2023-24, just 37 of approved applications (0.2%) were for children under a CAO.

“The most recent figures on applications show that although applications for kinship families are increasing, they remain considerably lower than for adoptive families,” said Kinship chief executive Lucy Peake.

“As a minimum, government should ensure all local authorities and RAAs record the split of awarded funding between SGO/CAO and adoptive families. Research into the therapeutic support offered by the fund to kinship families should proceed at pace to inform future delivery and development, and the government should confirm the future of the fund beyond March 2025.

“In addition, local authorities should ensure professionals working with kinship families have sufficient knowledge and capacity to support effective applications for eligible kinship families, and should ensure any delivery providers understand the specific needs and experiences of kinship families and how they differ to adoptive families.”

Social workers have created a map of adoption support services for birth families in England to help them overcome the challenge of finding provision when their children are being, have been or may be adopted.

The interactive online service, launched last week by the Family Rights Group (FRG), enables birth parents or relatives to search for, and find the details of, advice, support or counselling services in their areas.

It has been funded by Adoption England, the umbrella body for the country’s regional adoption agencies.

The charity’s social work team spent the past year gathering data on available services and then worked with the FRG’s parent panel and web developers on designing a map that was easy for families to use.

Birth families ‘struggle to access support’

“Too often, birth families affected by adoption struggle to access the support they need,” said the FRG’s principal social work adviser, Pam Ledward.

“Wherever families are in the process – before, during, and after adoption proceedings – Family Rights Group’s specialist national advice service hears heart-breaking examples of families left to navigate that process alone.”

She said available support varied from area to area, despite its significance for families involved in court proceedings.

“For example, therapeutic support is often cited in family court proceedings as a necessity if a parent whose child has been adopted is to safely keep subsequent children at home. Unfortunately, such support may either not be available, or the parent may not know how or where to access it.”

Ledward added that the interactive would “for the first time” provide a resource families across England could draw upon “at this critical time”.

Range of available services

The FRG said the map included detail of:

• General or legal advice and information about adoption;
• Advocacy support to help birth family members get their views across when dealing with children’s services and other agencies;
• Counselling or therapeutic support;
• Support groups for birth family members affected by adoption;
• Advice and information about contributing to a child’s life story work;
• Support with contact with an adopted child, including letterbox contact;
• Support to access adoption records and information held by children’s services or other adoption agencies;
• Information and support about reconnecting with an adult relative who was adopted as a child.

Map ‘useful for practitioners’

Adoption England’s national adoption strategic lead, Sarah Johal, said the “essential” resource would also be of value to social workers.

“This map will also be useful for professionals working with families to help understand the support provision available in their region and local area,” she added

“At a time when birth family members may not know who or where to turn to for help and support, this map is certain to change lives.”