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Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund

Asked by Melanie OnnLabourDepartment for EducationTabled Answered 19 May 2025UIN 47693

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund were awarded for specialist assessments of children in the financial year 2024–25.

Answered by Janet Daby

The available information is detailed in the tables below.

Number of applications* approved in the 2024/25 financial year with therapy service costs totalled by placement type:

Placement type

Less than £3,000

Between £3,000 and £5,000

i. Adoption (Domestic and Inter Country)

8,369

7,091

iii. Special Guardianship Order

2,179

1,895

iv. Child Arrangements Order/ Residency Order

34

27


*The data presented is the number of approved applications with therapy service costs. Please note that an individual application could have multiple recipients with multiple placement types and access the Fair Access Limit from multiple years.

** No data for ‘(ii) children waiting to be adopted’ as adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) doesn’t include this as a placement type.

There were 3069 approved applications and 3319 funded recipients for Specialist Assessments in the 2024/25 financial year.

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