Self-employed Adoptive Parents: Statutory Support

Debate between Lisa Smart and Josh MacAlister

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Josh MacAlister]

I am pleased that the parental leave and pay review is looking at these issues as part of its work, and I encourage Members to engage with the review as it continues.

The Department for Education’s statutory guidance is clear that where self-employed adopters do not qualify for any statutory payment, local authorities can consider making a payment that is equivalent to the maternity allowance.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

The Minister mentioned the review and said that it is under way. He did not mention how long it will take, and I note that the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith) asked for some guidance on the timeline. I would be grateful if he could give that and, further, if he could use his good offices to encourage local authorities to let potential self-employed adopters know that their discretionary funds exist because, as the hon. Lady mentioned, most do not.

[Josh MacAlister]

I thank the hon. Member for those questions. I will directly answer the questions that the hon. Member for South West Devon asked in a moment, but I take the broader point about encouraging local authorities to ensure that adopters in their area are aware of the support available to them.

As I was saying, local authorities can consider making a payment that is equivalent to the maternity allowance. That allows authorities to target adopters most in need of financial support, though I take the hon. Member’s point—a point powerfully made—on the inconsistency of that offer across England at the moment.

To answer the hon. Member’s questions directly, first, the parental leave review started in July and is expected to last 18 months, so we should be able to work back from there on when we expect its conclusions and publication. The review has a wide scope, but specific work on adoption support is firmly within that scope.

Finally, I turn to broader adoption support, which the hon. Member also asked me about. The Department for Education does make wider support available for all adoptive families. This year, £50 million was made available to support adopters and adoptive families through the adoption and special guardianship support fund. I appreciate that the changes we made to the ASGSF in April have been very difficult for some families, and I have listened carefully to what families have told me about those changes. I speak regularly with adopters and those working in the adoption system. We will start a formal process of engagement on long-term decisions in the new year. Details of the ASGSF from April 2026 will be made available once departmental business planning decisions are completed, and I expect that to be very soon.

So far this year, we have approved applications to support over 14,000 families through the fund. We have also invested £8.8 million this year into Adoption England for services across the country. Adoption England is doing a huge range of work to develop support for families through regional adoption agencies—for example, a new core offer of support for the first 12 to 18 months of a match between a child and a family.

Fundamentally, beyond adoption leave, the Government are taking bold steps to transform the entire children’s social care system. That is set out in our recently announced Families First Partnership programme. We have upped the funding to take it to £2.4 billion over the next three years. That change is fundamental to the whole system because it will reset the system—in a way that many Members across the House have for years argued for—away from late-stage crisis intervention and towards earlier, more intensive support for families, of all shapes and sizes, and that should be the bedrock of the future children’s social care system. In parallel, the investment and changes going into the NHS to ensure that health services can respond to the mental health needs of families and children—particularly the most vulnerable—will also act as a bedrock. We recognise, however, that adoptive families have special support needs.

I thank the hon. Member for South West Devon for securing the debate and for her speech. I welcome her acknowledgment of the difference that adopters make across the country. I also welcome the attention of the parental pay and leave review to this area of work. I look forward to engaging in the new year with adopters and Members from across the House, as well as with stakeholders who work in the adoption system, including my Department’s adopter reference group, as we work to confirm the long-term arrangements for adoption support.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lisa Smart and Josh MacAlister

Monday 1st December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

17. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the adoption and special guardianship support fund.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Josh MacAlister)]

I appreciate the strength of feeling regarding the adoption and special guardianship support fund. Last month, I met campaigners, adopters and those running adoption services to discuss their views. This year, we have invested £50 million in the adoption and special guardianship support fund, and we have approved applications for nearly 14,000 children since April. I want to work with families and those delivering adoption support towards a positive and sustainable solution for the future.

[Josh MacAlister]

I thank the hon. Member for drawing the attention of the House to a very powerful radio documentary, which I listened to last week. We do not have perfect data on this issue, but the data that we do have shows that cumulative adoption breakdowns have been at a rate of 4.8% over the past 12 years. I think that is too high, and it is the view of the Government that it is too high. We want to ensure that we get adoption support right for families, and I will go through a process of engagement with those who work in the sector and families affected to ensure that we can make improvements to it in the future.

[Lisa Smart]

I am an adoptive auntie, and I know the power that comes to young children when they are in a stable, loving family and the impact that that can have on their lives. One of my constituents from Romiley tells me that despite a likely diagnosis of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder for two of her three adopted children, their therapy funding will soon come to an abrupt end, and there is no clarity on whether it will be extended. The only way she can see for her family and for many others like them to achieve safety, security and certainty for their children is through that support. Will the Minister update the House on whether they plan to extend the adoption and special guardianship support fund? If so, will they consider making a multi-year funding guarantee to offer adoptive families and—let us face it—some of the country’s most vulnerable children greater certainty about future support?

[Josh MacAlister]

We want to ensure a sustainable, long-term future for adoption support in this country. I will set out plans in the near future that will hopefully address a number of the concerns that the hon. Member has mentioned. That sits on top of the really quite widespread changes and improvements we are making to children’s social care, with £2.4 billion of investment over the next three years to ensure that earlier family help is there for all families, regardless of their legal status, whether they are an adopter or a birth parent.