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Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF)
Family Rights Group is concerned about the impact of recent changes to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) for children in kinship care who need therapy. All children, raised by relatives and friends, in kinship care who need therapy should be able to access it.
What is the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF)?
The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) pays for a range of therapeutic support for adopted children and their adoptive family, and for children in kinship care who are subject to a special guardianship order (SGO) and child arrangement order (CAO) and were previously looked after in the care system.
Find out more about the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
What changes have been made to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund?
In April 2025, the Government made concerning changes to the funding criteria which cut the amount of support available to individual children.
- The Fair Access Limit (FAL) has been reduced to £3,000 per child per year. This was previously £5,000.
- There is no longer a dedicated budget for specialist assessments. They must now be paid for within the same Fair Access Limit.
- There will no longer be match funding applications for therapy which cost more than the £3,000 Fair Access Limit, or for specialist assessments which cost more than £2,500.
What impact could the cuts to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund have on families?
Delays in accessing therapy for children
Children have already had to face delays for approved therapy to start due to the uncertainty. The new criteria means that many applications to the Fund will have to be revised and resubmitted. This will likely lead to even longer waiting times for children in urgent need of support.
Children with the highest needs could be denied support
Children who require extensive specialist support may now be denied the support they need if this falls outside the new fair access limits. At a time when the broader mental health system is in crisis, the cuts to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund will disproportionately affect the children with the highest needs.
The removal of the dedicated assessment budget also means it is now more difficult for families to obtain both assessments and therapeutic support.
Families are being forced to make difficult choices
We are hearing from many kinship carers who are distressed about the difficult choices they are now having to make. That includes which support they should prioritise for the children and which to forego despite assessments recommending it.
All children in kinship care who need therapy should be able to access it
Children raised in kinship care have often experienced tragedy or trauma. Family Rights Group often hears from kinship carers we advise about the difficulties they face in accessing the therapeutic support that the children in their care so desperately need.
The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund is only available to some children in kinship care, leaving many others excluded.
Elaine’s story
“I’m a special guardian of a 7 year old girl that has an increasing need for professional expertise to help her understand and piece together in age appropriate terms why she can’t live with her mum and dad.
“Since last year we had an application to the ASGSF for Life Story work, but funding had been depleted. This was on hold pending announcement of whether the Fund would be renewed for this year.
“Now, as a result of the cuts to the spend per child, her application has been returned for re-costing and resubmission. The team has only 2 full time equivalent staff and many applications to reprocess. This will place her significantly below where she was on the waiting list.
“The new limit will cover her Life Story work but will not now allow for the therapeutic work she is likely to need to deal with the impact the knowledge of her background has on her. A special assessment was also likely to follow, but this can no longer happen.
“It’s like opening a bubbling cauldron, then not allowing the steam to escape and putting the lid back down. This will just lead to suppression of anxieties and feelings that the work will raise that will fester, and we are not experts who can competently deal with these effects.”
“We now have to seriously consider whether starting this and not having enough funding for the follow on work needed for another year and maybe not at all, is more harmful than not starting it.”
How Family Rights Group is campaigning for therapy for all kinship children who need it
Family Rights Group is working with families, politicians and partners in the sector to campaign against these changes. We want all children in kinship care who need therapy to be able to access it.
Kinship carers on Family Rights Group’s kinship carers panel meeting with MPs in Parliament, May 2025.
July 2025
Along with Adoption UK, Barnardos, Coram, CVAA and Kinship we have sent a joint letter to the Secretary of State for Education.
Together we are calling for:
- an urgent review of the changes made to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF),
- funding to be confirmed beyond March 2026, and
- proper consultation for any future reform.
Family Rights Group also facilitated a spotlight session on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Care. MPs and Peers on the Group agreed to write to the Children’s Minister with questions on the ASGSF and the Government’s plans for the future of the Fund.
Read our blog on the APPG’s SEND spotlight session
May 2025
Family Rights Group briefed MPs for a Westminster Hall debate on support for children in adopted and kinship arrangements.
Members of our kinship carers’ panel joined MPs for the debate. We also supported carers and supporters to contact their MP about the debate.
New data we worked with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Care to secure showed that almost half of applications (46%) to the Fund last year were above the new £3000 Fair Access Limit. Children and Young People Now reported on this here.
We also joined a parliamentary drop-in led by Adoption UK, supported by Family Rights Group, Kinship, Corambaaf and the campaign group Action Against ASGSF Changes. A chance for MPs to meet adoptive and special guardianship parents and carers.
April 2025
On 1st April, during an urgent question in Parliament led by APPG Vice Chair Munira Wilson MP, the Government announced a £50 million extension to the Fund for 2025-26.
On 14th April, the Department for Education announced changes to the Fund criteria by email, with a Ministerial written statement later published on 22nd April.
Family Rights Group voiced deep concern at the significant reduction in the cap on support available under the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
APPG Members raised the issue at Education Questions on 28th April, including Chair Melanie Onn MP who was raised in kinship care herself.
March 2025
Family Rights Group provide the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Care.
The APPG wrote to Minister Daby when the funding situation beyond 31st March 2025 was unclear. Read the Minister’s written response.
We facilitated a meeting of the APPG met on 19th March to discuss the urgent need for clarity on funding, and heard from kinship carers affected.
Tessa Munt MP raised the issue at Business Questions. Lord Hannay also raised the future of the Fund with Minister Jacqui Smith.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on 26th March, APPG Vice Chair Munira Wilson MP raised the imminent cliff edge in funding.
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Last updated June 2025
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