Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Fund; and whether the (a) funding and (b) services provided will extend beyond March 2025.

Previously, a three-year mixed-method evaluation was carried out by the Institute of Public Care (IPC), Oxford Brookes University (2018-2021), on behalf of the department. The report found that ‘a high proportion (83%) of parents and guardians participating in the longitudinal survey found the funded support helpful or very helpful overall.’ The IPC report also found ‘a statistically significant (substantial, with large effect size) improvement in parent and guardian estimates of the extent to which the main aim of the funded support had been met by the end of the intervention’ and reported that parents and guardians scored on average ‘7 out of 10 in relation to a question about the extent to which positive change(s) for their child and/or family had been sustained six months since the conclusion of ASF-funded support.’ The full report can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6391c41a8fa8f53ba783e8ad/Evaluation_of_the_Adoption_Support_Fund_2018_to_2022_-_summary_.pdf.

The adequacy of the therapies available within the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into dyadic developmental psychotherapy (DDP), one of the main therapies the ASGSF funds. This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the department started to collect data from outcomes measurement tools for ASGSF-funded therapies in December 2023. As therapy treatment comes to an end, this data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of individual ASGSF-funded therapies.

ASGSF therapy applications are generally permitted to extend up to 12 months, allowing children and families to receive continuing therapy across financial years. The department will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how its budget will be allocated for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the ASGSF are being made as part of these discussions. An announcement will be made as soon as possible.