Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support she is providing to families requiring services under the adoption and special guardian support fund.

The adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) provides trauma and attachment related therapy and specialist assessments for children and families where the child has previously been in local authority care and has been adopted or is under a special guardianship order. The department will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on the allocation of the department’s budget for the next financial year.

To ensure there are no gaps in therapy, ASGSF applications are currently permitted to extend up to 12 months, allowing children and families to receive continuing therapy across financial years. Where applications are approved, therapy which starts during March 2025 may therefore continue into the next financial year, under previously agreed transitional funding arrangements.