Adoptive Families Need Long-Term Support, Not More Uncertainty

Today I had the opportunity to speak in Westminster Hall about the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.

This fund might not be something everyone has heard of, but for thousands of families across the UK it’s absolutely vital. Set up in 2015, it provides specialist therapeutic support to adopted children and their families. These are children who have often been through the toughest of starts in life, around 80% will have suffered abuse, neglect, or violence before adoption. Many will have spent over a year in care, moving from one foster placement to another.

That kind of instability takes its toll. It’s no surprise that many adopted children need extra support to help them process their experiences, heal, and thrive in their new families. That’s exactly what this fund is designed to do, but right now it isn’t working as it should.

Recently, I was contacted by a constituent who adopted three children back in 2007. Post-adoption, all three were diagnosed with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Autism, ADHD, and early-life trauma. Their parents have done everything humanly possible to get them the right support, often fighting for years, and sometimes paying privately for therapy and education when the system fell short.

One of their daughters recently requested Life Story Work, a really important type of therapy that helps young people make sense of their past and build a stronger sense of identity. But this was halted due to changes in the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund. She’s now left without the help she needs, just when she needs it most. Their youngest child has also had her occupational therapy reduced simply to make it fit under the funding cap.

Stories like this are heartbreaking, and they are not unique. Families who open their homes and hearts to children who desperately need them deserve more than short-term fixes and half-measures. They need the certainty of long-term support.

The Government has promised £50 million of funding for 2025–26. That sounds like a big number, but it’s still a sticking plaster solution. What families really need is security, the reassurance that this fund will be there for the long haul. Without it, too many families are left to struggle alone, and worse still, potential adopters may be put off.

Every year, over 39,000 children enter the care system, that’s 107 children every single day. Right now, over 104,000 children are being looked after away from home. If we don’t get the support right for adoptive families, that number will only rise.

My message to the Government today was clear: secure this fund properly, for the long term. Families can’t be expected to live year-to-year, never knowing whether the vital therapies their children rely on will continue. Adoption is about giving children stability; the least we can do is make sure the support system around them is stable too.