The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) will continue in 2025-26, with £50m available to fund therapies and specialist assessments for children formerly in the care system.
Children’s minister Janet Daby made the announcement today after being called to the House of Commons to confirm whether the ASGSF had a future, one day after it expired.
The announcement ends months of speculation about the ASGSF’s future, during which Daby – and on one occasion, Keir Starmer – have repeatedly failed to confirm whether the fund had a future beyond 31 March 2025.
Significant uncertainty for children and families
The situation had created significant uncertainty for thousands of children and families, led to some having their therapy brought to an abrupt end and delayed applications for support for those whose needs had been newly assessed by councils or regional adoption agencies (RAA).
Campaigners and therapy providers warned that this had exacerbated the trauma experienced by the children concerned, all of whom were formerly in care and, in most cases, were now in adoptive or special guardianship placements.
When funding ended yesterday, the Department for Education maintained the line ministers had kept to for two months – that it would set out details on the ASGSF “as soon as possible”.
Liberal Democrat spokesperson for education, children and families Munira Wilson then tabled an urgent question in Parliament today asking the government to confirm whether the ASGSF had a future.
Surprise announcement of £50m for 2025-26
To her surprise, Daby responded by saying: “I’m very happy to confirm today that £50m has been allocated for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund for this year. I’ll be sharing further details with the House in the next few days and opening applications.”
The funding is broadly in line with levels over the past three years, during which £144m was allocated to the ASGSF.
Funding beyond 2026 is subject to the government’s spending review, which will report this summer.
However, Daby said that ministers had “no plans” to end the ASGSF in March 2026, pointing to councils’ duties under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 to assess needs for adoption support and then decide whether to provide services.
Minister ‘appreciates’ impact of delay on children and families
Daby added: “I very much appreciate that the delay conforming continuation has bene a very difficult time for many. I’m especially concerned for children and families as many of those who the ASGSF supports are in great need of continued help.”
She said she also recognised the impact on therapy providers, some of whom have had to seek other sources of work, prompting warnings from adoption leaders of reduced capacity for ASGSF-funded services.
In response, Wilson said: “I welcome the announcement we’ve just heard form the minister, which none of us were accepting as many of us on all sides of the chamber have spent the last few months asking question after question and being batted away and told that an answer was forthcoming.”
Children ‘left in limbo’
She said the fund was for children who had suffered the “deepest trauma”, but they had been “left hanging and in limbo”.
Wilson and several other MPs shared stories of the anxiety experienced by constituents because of the delay in confirming the fund’s future.
Concerns were also raised about the significant backlog of ASGSF cases that will need to be considered by consultancy Mott MacDonald – which administers the fund on behalf of the DfE – when applications reopen.
Conservative MP Julia Lopez asked if there would be resource put into clearing the backlog, but Daby did not answer the point.
No commitment to putting funding on longer-term basis
Though Daby suggested funding would continue beyond 2026, MPs also asked for it to be placed on a longer-term basis.
Currently, funding for therapy is only provided for 12 months – or until £5,000 has been exhausted – meaning councils and RAAs must reapply on behalf of children and families who need longer-term support. However, Daby did not respond to this point.
At one point during the debate, Daby appeared to imply that the fund would be extended to those kinship families who are currently not covered by it, but she later said its remit would not be expanded.
About the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund
The ASGSF is currently children and young people up age 21 21, or 25 with an education, health and care plan, who
- are living (placed) with a family in England while waiting for adoption;
- were adopted from local authority care in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland and live in England;
- were adopted from abroad and live in England with a recognised adoption status;
- were in care before a special guardianship order (SGO) was made;
- left care under a special guardianship order that was subsequently changed to an adoption order, or vice versa;
- are under a residency order or child arrangement order (CAO) and were previously looked after;
- were previously looked after but whose adoption, special guardianship, residency or CAO placement has broken down, irrespective of any reconciliation plans.
In 2023-24, 16,970 therapy applications were approved for services, along with 2,718 for specialist assessments.
Therapies funded include creative and physical therapies, family therapy, psychotherapy, parent training and therapeutic life story work.
‘What has happened has been really unforgivable’
Sector bodies welcomed the continuation of the fund but heavily criticised the delay in making the announcement.
For Adoption UK, chief executive Emily Frith said: “The fund has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of children and it’s a huge relief to have this commitment for a further year of specialist support.
“Unfortunately the delay has caused great distress for families and has risked further harm to children. There will now be a backlog of applications, and further waits for people in desperate need of support. What has happened has been really unforgivable. The government must open applications immediately, and then announce a permanent Fund so they avoid ever causing such distress again.”
Families face ‘dangerous gap in therapy’
Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA) chief executive, Satwinder Sandhu said it was “enormously relieved and pleased that the funding has been confirmed”.
However, he warned: “We now have to redirect our concerns to the thousands of families facing a dangerous gap in therapy, of unknown length, while the fund is flooded with applications (once they re-open the application portal that is).
“It’s a dire situation which needs an emergency strategy from the DfE to identify and fast-track families in most need. There also needs to be consideration of emergency funding to plug the gap or at least reimburse services which have to use their reserves to keep children safe these next few months.”
He added: “What’s clear is that in recent months we have witnessed a shortsighted approach from government towards adoptive families. They recognise the urgent need for more prospective adopters, yet they undermine this by failing to provide adopters with assurances of support which is essential for all children being placed.”
Kinship, which advocates for kinship families, issued a similarly qualified message.
Delay ‘has led to immense worry and stress’
“This news will come as welcome relief to all of those kinship families who were deeply concerned about their children losing access to vital therapeutic support,” said its director of policy and communications, Rhiannon Clapperton.
“However, we remain deeply frustrated that this clarity has only come after the fund had expired and after a lengthy period of unnecessary uncertainty.
“The absence of any information about the future of the fund has led to immense worry and stress amongst the kinship families we support and campaign alongside.”
She added: “It is vital the government now works at pace to mitigate against the negative impacts of the delay and ensure that applications for therapeutic assessments and support can proceed as quickly as possible.”
Call to extend fund to more kinship families
Family Rights Group’s chief executive, Cathy Ashley, said the government had “extended a vital lifeline for families to access therapeutic support for adopted children and some in kinship care arrangements”, but urged ministers to extend the ASGSF’s remit.
“Family Rights Group has long urged the government to remove the requirement for kinship children to have been in the care system to be eligible, and to include those in informal arrangements.
“Longer-term funding security and improving the application process would be a boost to families too.”
Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kinship Care made a similar point in response to the news, saying: “The minister was unclear on whether further children in kinship care could become eligible for this support. Our group, alongside families and the sector, has been calling for this to ensure all children in kinship care who need this are able to access it.
“We are encouraged by the extension but will scrutinise the details including any expansion when they are available.”
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The way in which the government has handled this has been appauling. Our children have been informed their support may end precisely when they need it most. The uncertainty has been stressful on all of us. It takes such a long time for children with experiences of trauma and attachment difficulties to begin to engage in therapy and when this comes to an abrupt end because we are all unsure if the funding will be available it is so difficult on them.
Totally agree, so hard for children already dealing with uncertainties in life and super stressful as an adoptive parent. The funding has yet to be clarified precisely and to which therapies /assessments can be funded so still more waiting !
Shame on Labour. Do not expect to be re elected judging by you record to date
Despite this news applications are still on hold whilst the ASGSF clear the backlog and decide how they will distribute the funds for new applications. Add on the wait time for a decision outcome from the panel and families might still be waiting months for therapy or assessment. The potential impact of this delay is unacceptable.
The funding should be extended to any child on a Special Guardianship Order regardless of their prior ‘looked after’ status. These children will have experienced the same trauma of having been removed from birth parents and all of the additional adverse childhood experiences that many of these situations derive from. Why should any child be denied the opportunity to thrive with committed carers who are simply not experienced in managing the impact of childhood trauma?
Hi Melanie,
It was extended to this a couple of years ago.
Hi G, it is my understanding – based on the kinship therapy funding info we’ve been given – that only children who have had a “LAC” status prior to their SGO status are eligible for the therapy fund. So if the SGO was given without a history of the local authority looking after that child etc, they are not eligible for funding. Can you confirm if you’ve heard different?
This is still the criteria, if children haven’t been previously looked after, they’re currently not eligible unfortunately. Hopefully this will change as it’s absolutely necessary and important as Melanie points out in her original post.