Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2025 to Question 42565 on Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the time taken to confirm funding for the 2025-26 financial year on the number of applications to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund that were not carried forward by adoption agencies.
Answered by Janet Daby
The number of applications returned for re-work after the announcement was 727. This allowed changes to be made to align with the grant criteria where necessary and also allowed confirmation that the local authority or regional adoption agency still wished to submit the application.
Applications are now being assessed and approved within the usual timeframes.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many complaints were (a) received and (b) upheld against Mott MacDonald in its role administering the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department has received no complaints regarding Mott MacDonald’s administration of the adoption and special guardianship support fund.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the potential impact of changes to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on the ability of local authorities to (a) carry out their statutory duty to maintain appropriate service for adoption support under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and (b) assess adoption support needs when requested under Adoption Support Services Regulations 2005.
Answered by Janet Daby
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues over a range of important matters.
Local authorities exercise their statutory duty to children previously in care and adopted children through regional adoption agencies (RAAs).
The department has recently announced funding of £8.8 million for Adoption England to improve adoption services, including adoption support. This includes supporting RAAs to provide an early support core offer for all families in the first 12 to 18 months after an adoption placement, as well as providing families with a new adoption support plan to give them information and guidance, including how they can access help.
Adoption England will be supporting RAAs to develop and make sustainable Centres of Excellence with local health partners, so families receive holistic assessment and packages of support.
They will also be supporting RAAs to put in place services that can respond quickly and more effectively to adoptive families in crisis. Currently, RAAs and local authorities can back-date applications to cover costs of therapies which begin in this financial year, even before the application is approved. This allows continuation of support for the most vulnerable families.
Adoptive families can also receive help from local authority Family Help services. The government is doubling investment in these services to over £500 million in the 2025/26 financial year.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the risk of adoption and special guardianship disruption as a result of the delay in funding for therapeutic support via the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues over a range of important matters.
Local authorities exercise their statutory duty to children previously in care and adopted children through regional adoption agencies (RAAs).
The department has recently announced funding of £8.8 million for Adoption England to improve adoption services, including adoption support. This includes supporting RAAs to provide an early support core offer for all families in the first 12 to 18 months after an adoption placement, as well as providing families with a new adoption support plan to give them information and guidance, including how they can access help.
Adoption England will be supporting RAAs to develop and make sustainable Centres of Excellence with local health partners, so families receive holistic assessment and packages of support.
They will also be supporting RAAs to put in place services that can respond quickly and more effectively to adoptive families in crisis. Currently, RAAs and local authorities can back-date applications to cover costs of therapies which begin in this financial year, even before the application is approved. This allows continuation of support for the most vulnerable families.
Adoptive families can also receive help from local authority Family Help services. The government is doubling investment in these services to over £500 million in the 2025/26 financial year.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund are on hold as a result of the delay caused in announcing the funding for the current financial year.
Answered by Janet Daby
Since the pause on accepting applications to the adoption and special guardianship support fund ended on 14 April, there are no applications on hold. Many of the applications received for funding which started in the previous financial year have continued into this year, and applications for this financial year are now being processed and approved.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications were made under match funding arrangements to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund for (a) specialist assessments and (b) therapeutic support in each financial year since 2015; and what the (i) total and (ii) average value was of those applications.
Answered by Janet Daby
The attached table provides the information requested.
Please note that the fair access limit (FAL) and match funding arrangements were introduced in October 2016. The separate FAL for specialist assessments was introduced in April 2017. However, match funding records were not captured by the department’s systems until July 2018. Because of this, prior data on match funding has been excluded.
Applications may cover funding for more than one child. Hence, average values may not align with the FAL for individual children. In addition, some applications which include match funding also fund continuation of therapy where a previous application has been submitted at below the FAL level, but then a small amount is required to top-up the therapy provided. These small top-up applications are match funded, but small in value, and therefore fall below the £5,000 average. This will also affect the average costs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications were made under the fair access limit to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund in each financial year since 2015; and what the (a) total and (b) average value was of those applications.
Answered by Janet Daby
The attached table provides the information requested.
Please note that the fair access limit (FAL) and match funding arrangements were introduced in October 2016. The separate FAL for specialist assessments was introduced in April 2017. However, match funding records were not captured by the department’s systems until July 2018. Because of this, prior data on match funding has been excluded.
Applications may cover funding for more than one child. Hence, average values may not align with the FAL for individual children. In addition, some applications which include match funding also fund continuation of therapy where a previous application has been submitted at below the FAL level, but then a small amount is required to top-up the therapy provided. These small top-up applications are match funded, but small in value, and therefore fall below the £5,000 average. This will also affect the average costs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on its contract with Mott Macdonald to administer the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund in each year since 2018.
Answered by Janet Daby
The table below shows the requested information on spending each year on Mott MacDonald for their administration of the adoption and special guardianship support fund.
Financial Year | Contract Spend (ex. VAT) |
2018/19 | £2,066,435.40 |
2019/20 | £1,816,902.00 |
2020/21 | £1,876,102.00 |
2021/22 | £2,090,952.00 |
2022/23 | £2,382,116.25 |
2023/24 | £2,540,745.29 |
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications made to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund before March 31st 2025 were rejected on the basis that no future funding announcement had been made.
Answered by Janet Daby
Following an announcement on 1 April, the department is delighted to announce that £50 million has been allocated to the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) for the 2025/26 financial year.
No applications to the ASGSF made before 31 March 2025 have been rejected because no announcement had been made. Any applications which requested funding from April 2025 have either been returned for possible re-submission or held on the system.
Transitional funding arrangements for 2025/26 were communicated to all local authorities and regional adoption agencies on 11 April 2024 and reiterated on 25 October 2024. This meant that we could accept applications which started in the 2024/25 financial year and continued into the 2025/26 financial year. However, they could not begin in the 2025/26 financial year.
The department very much values the work of providers of therapy and recognises that this has been a challenging period. We hope the announcement will help providers, families and children prepare for the year ahead. We will provide additional details for the 2025/26 financial year shortly.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the availability of information on future funding for the adoption and special guardianship support fund on (a) therapy providers (b) levels of redundancies of therapists that specialise in supporting (i) adopted children and (ii) children in special guardianship and (iii) their families.
Answered by Janet Daby
Following an announcement on 1 April, the department is delighted to announce that £50 million has been allocated to the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) for the 2025/26 financial year.
No applications to the ASGSF made before 31 March 2025 have been rejected because no announcement had been made. Any applications which requested funding from April 2025 have either been returned for possible re-submission or held on the system.
Transitional funding arrangements for 2025/26 were communicated to all local authorities and regional adoption agencies on 11 April 2024 and reiterated on 25 October 2024. This meant that we could accept applications which started in the 2024/25 financial year and continued into the 2025/26 financial year. However, they could not begin in the 2025/26 financial year.
The department very much values the work of providers of therapy and recognises that this has been a challenging period. We hope the announcement will help providers, families and children prepare for the year ahead. We will provide additional details for the 2025/26 financial year shortly.