Sector welcomes chance to shape adoption support despite concerns

The Department for Education (DfE) confirmed the ASGSF will receive £55m for 2026–27 — a £5m increase on the previous year — and will continue until 2028, as part of wider reforms to children’s social care.

The proposals are set out in a consultation document, Adoption support that works for all, which aims to establish a more consistent national support offer, strengthen needs assessments and support planning, and improve coordination between social care, health and education services.

Children and Families Minister Josh MacAlister said adoptive and kinship families “make an extraordinary commitment to children who have had a difficult start, and they deserve the strongest possible support”.

“Our proposals build on what we know works, and I look forward to hearing from families and experts on how we can improve support further,” he said. “I’m also pleased to confirm continued funding for the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, ensuring families can keep accessing the services they rely on.”

From September, Adoption England will introduce new support for adopted children preparing to enter Year 7 — a transition ministers describe as a particularly vulnerable point for young people with early life trauma. The offer will include online learning, group sessions and peer support for parents to help children manage emotional and behavioural challenges.

Sarah Johal, national adoption strategic lead at Adoption England, said the announcement marked “an important step towards a more preventative, consistent, and evidence-informed system of support”.

“The extension of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, alongside new investment in transition support and a sector-wide consultation, will help ensure children and their families receive support earlier, before difficulties escalate,” she said.

Johal added that while the fund “remains a crucial lifeline”, it was encouraging the consultation looked beyond it alone by proposing “a universal baseline offer, support at key transitions and improving the way social care, health, and education work together”.

Coram chief executive Dame Carol Homden also welcomed the reforms, describing them as “a welcome and ambitious route map to ensuring that adopted children and their families and those in kinship care can depend upon timely and consistent access to effective support, including from education and health services, no matter where they live”.

She said the certainty of funding while consultation takes place would allow the “evidence and experience of children, families and agencies” to shape future services.

Local government voices echoed this support. Councillor Antoinette Bramble, deputy mayor of Hackney, alongside Councillor Anya Sizer, deputy cabinet member for SEND and an adoptive parent, said families had long faced “a complex and often inequitable support system”.

“We welcome the Government’s announcement today, which signals the start of a much-needed reset and a renewed commitment to a clear pathway of support that is local, fair, evidence-based and, above all, compassionate,” they said.

However, the proposals have also raised concerns within the adoption sector, particularly around the future of the ASGSF.

Adoption UK welcomed the full review of adoption support and the continuation of funding, but warned that plans to potentially devolve the fund to regional adoption agencies or local authorities could increase inconsistency and weaken accountability.

Emily Frith, chief executive of Adoption UK, said: “We welcome confirmation of funding for the ASGSF for the next two years. We are also pleased that the Government has listened to our calls for a proper consultation on a full review of adoption support.

“Nevertheless, we are deeply disappointed that the cuts made to the fund last year have not been reversed, and that the only proposals put forward for the future of the ASGSF are to devolve funding rather than retain a central ringfenced fund.”

She warned that “the postcode lottery in adoption support is already a serious concern” and argued devolving the fund would “create more inconsistency and reduce accountability”.

“It is essential that ASGSF funding is ringfenced so that it doesn’t get swallowed up by other demands on local authority budgets,” Frith added.

Adoption UK said many families had already experienced delays and reduced access to therapeutic services following earlier funding reductions, despite strong evidence of the fund’s impact. Its Adoption Barometer found 85% of families who received ASGSF-funded support in 2024 reported a significant positive effect, while more than four in ten adoptive families said they were facing crisis.

The charity also expressed concern that the consultation appeared to underplay the lifelong impact of trauma experienced by many adopted and kinship children.

“Far from being the exception to the norm, the impact and severity of these early life experiences — alongside complex needs such as SEND, autism and ADHD — means the need for support is common and can be lifelong,” Adoption UK said.

At the same time, the organisation welcomed proposals to expand peer support and strengthen planning around key transitions, reflecting calls from young adoptees through the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Adoption and Permanence’s Adoptee Voices inquiry.

The government has said the consultation will inform a detailed action plan later this year, setting out how adoption support will be reformed and funded in future.