Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund were awarded where (a) local authorities and (b) regional adoption agencies were required to match-fund the application due to an exceptional case involving urgent need for higher-cost support exceeding the fair access limit in the financial year 2024–25 by (i) whether the child has been adopted, (ii) whether the child is subject to a (A) special guardianship and (B) child arrangements order and (iii) region.
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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