Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the adoption and special guardianship and support fund on looked after children's access to mental health (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment in South Cambridgeshire.

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 (SGO) or child arrangements order (CAO). The ASGSF has given adopted and SGO/CAO children and families in South Cambridgeshire access to a variety of therapeutic interventions designed to help them with the impact of their early life trauma. Although the department continues to assess the impact of the ASGSF on children, it does not collect information centrally to assess the impact of the ASGSF on wider mental health diagnosis or treatment.

Announcements on funding for the ASGSF will be made as soon as possible.