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.

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.