Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the access of local authorities and adoptive parents to therapeutic services provided through the Adoption Support Fund during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government acted quickly to establish the Adoption Support Fund COVID-19 scheme in April 2020. The government provided over £6 million to local authorities and regional adoption agencies through the Adoption Support Fund COVID-19 scheme to enable them to provide specific therapeutic support to adoptive and eligible special guardianship families for needs arising from the COVID-19 outbreak. The funding included support for activities which would normally be outside the standard Adoption Support Fund. Local authorities and regional adoption agencies were invited to apply between 27 April and 12 June 2020 and 433 applications were approved supporting up to 61,000 families.

We also introduced flexible arrangements for the standard Fund, including allowing therapy to be amended to take account of the COVID-19 restrictions.