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Adoption UK welcomes confirmation of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) which has provided specialist support for traumatised children and young adults for a decade. The government has committed £50m for 2025-6; the same funding as last year.
Adoption UK’s CEO 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.”
Around 3,000 children in England are placed in adoptive families each year. Most have suffered abuse, neglect, or violence and spend an average of 15 months in care before adoption, often with a number of moves while in care, losing everything that is familiar to them along the way. It is common for adopted people to need support throughout their lives.
The Fund has always been tied to government spending rounds and competing demands on government finances, leaving children and young people on a ‘cliff edge’ towards the end of each financial year, not knowing if their support will continue. This is the first year the government allowed the Fund to literally run out of time, without any communication about future plans, and with little acknowledgement of the widespread distress caused.
