05/07/2025
STATEMENT FROM ACTION AGAINST ASGSF CHANGES
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On Wednesday we met with Sarah Johal and colleagues at Adoption England. This meeting was in response to our open letter to Rachel Reeves.
We heard about Adoption Englands plans moving forward and shared the strength of feeling and concerns of our community. There are plans to meet again.
Adoption England said they did not know about the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) cuts until the announcement was made by the government on the 15th of April.
Like us, they are still waiting for an update from the Department for Education (DfE) about what happens next. No one yet knows if the ASGSF will continue beyond March 2026, or with what parameters.
There appears to be some resignation in parts of the sector that the £50 million fund will not be increased. As a campaign group we do not accept that we should stop fighting for an increase, and we don’t think you should accept it either.
It is unacceptable for the government to keep saying that in order for more children to access the fund every child must have an inadequate amount.
The government says their decision will still allow a child to access a significant therapeutic package. We have yet to see any evidence from them that would justify this claim.
By their own admission no consultation took place whatsoever before these decisions were made.
They say they did not consult with the sector or the community so that they could reopen the fund. This is an excuse steeped in negligence.
The funds renewal didn’t come as surprise to the government, so where was the planning? What impact assessments of these cuts have been made?
We know these cuts have left children and families in crisis with nowhere to turn. We know that these cuts leave families having to choose between assessment and therapy. We know entire treatment models are no longer viable.
Many therapeutic providers cannot take on new children with complex needs. Not because they don’t want to help (they are desperate to) but because safe, effective support for children with complex trauma is impossible on £3,000 per child, especially with the threat it could end abruptly in March. Our most vulnerable children are left without help, and more will end up re-entering care.
A Labour Government has done this to us.
The government say Regional Adoption Agencies (RAA) and local authorities (LA) can top up therapy funding.
Every RAA that has responded to letters from parents and carers that we have seen have stated that they absolutely cannot top up funding.
LA’s topping up funding will involve a postcode lottery. Either way that is not ring-fenced funding for our children and that is what they need and deserve.
We have seen in recent weeks that the government can find money when the case is made loudly and strongly enough. In relative terms we are a small group but we firmly believe we can make our case as loud and as strong as required.
Doing that will need a collective effort. We will need to utilise our community to its fullest. More on this in upcoming posts.
We urge all organisations, individuals and groups that can to push for the ASGSF to be increased in line with inflation and in line with need. Our children need access to the right level of specialist therapy at the right time, nothing less is acceptable.
Voices are unanimous across the sector that not meeting the needs of our children and young adults now will have a huge lifelong impact. It is also not cost effective now or in the future.
Our children are suffering now, they will continue to suffer. This is unacceptable. Families are in crisis with nowhere to turn. This is unacceptable.
This is neglect at a state level. The Children Act 1989 states that the child’s welfare must be paramount, can the government honestly say that it is?
From our meetings and work so far, it is obvious urgent action is needed or it will be too late.
Specialist therapeutic providers are closing or leaving this field altogether because no one can run a service in this financial chaos. Highly skilled professionals who want to help are facing impossible choices. Government, Adoption England and all the other major organisations need to act now to stop this. Once these services go, they will be lost for a generation.
It is also clear that whilst individual organisations across adoption and kinship care are working incredibly hard there is too little collaboration between them.
No leading organisation or body is stepping up to steer this ship.
No one is listening properly to all sides or consulting meaningfully to shape a better way forward. This must change. Urgently.
We need leadership focused first and foremost on understanding what our children need and making sure those needs are met
NEXT STEPS
We believe that a public and independent consultation must be commissioned by the DfE. This cannot be run by any of the current organisations. Recommendations must be free from bias. The focus must be on what our children’s needs are and how best to meet them. To this end a number of plans are in progress.
We will be writing an open letter to Bridget Phillipson and Janet Daby asking for this consultation to be carried out and will seek your support and signatures.
In the same letter we will also ask once again for the ASGSF to be reinstated in full for the next two financial years until March 2028 whilst consultation takes place and plans are made. The Fair Access Limit should return to £5,000 with match funding available, and assessment funding restored. If this requires more than £50 million, the government must find it. We already know they can.
We are also considering another protest march, even bigger and louder this time, if our community has the appetite.
Would you support another march? We will put up a poll shortly. WATCH THIS SPACE.
For us to find a way to be bigger and louder we will need YOUR help.
For now we sign off by saying,
The fight may be hard but it must go on.
Clare, Euan and Stéph
