The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), which provides therapy for more than 18,000 young people, is due to expire on Monday 31 March – with no guarantee from Labour that it will continue.
But parents fear a months-long application backlog is building as families have been told by local authorities they cannot apply for 2025/26 funding unless the Government commits to extending the fund.
“Due to an imminent potential funding cut on March 31 2025, over 50 of our vulnerable children and their families are at risk of losing the vital therapy services they rely on, which could lead to devastating consequences,” the charity states on its website.
Children will be able to continue receiving therapy into the new financial year if applications were agreed and treatment was started before March 2025.
What is the adoption and special guardianship support fund?
The fund pays for essential therapeutic services, such as creative therapies for people aged up to 21, or 25 if they have an education, health and care plan.Those who are eligible include those who were previously in local authority care in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, or are adopted from overseas.
It can be used to pay for creative therapies including art, music, drama and play therapy.Aims of the therapies include improving a child’s relationship with friends, family members, teachers and school staff.
It can also pay for specialist assessments that lead to a therapeutic support plan for families.
Each child can received £5,000 per child for therapy and £2,500 for specialist assessments.
Adoptive parent Sarah, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, attempted to start an application to continue her seven-year-old daughter’s therapy from April after running out of last year’s £5,000 allocation in October.
“This is supposed to be breaking the cycle, but it’s going to be very hard to do that without extra support, because it doesn’t matter how nice we are or how much we love her, she’s traumatised and needs more professional help than we’re able to give,” she told The i Paper.
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She was adopted at the age of four and has benefited from sensory and attachment therapy to help her develop healthy relationships and move beyond her troubled past. But since the funding ran out, Sarah said her daughter’s mental state has started to “regress”.
“If we can address these things with her sooner rather than later, she can begin, hopefully, to live a normal life. She’s not been able to do that so far because she’s all consumed with keeping herself safe.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Children in care deserve the best life chances and adoption enables more children to grow up in safe, loving homes.
“We will set out more details on the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund as soon as possible.”
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