Adoption: Mental Health Services
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve levels of mandatory trauma accreditation within professionals working with adopted children.
Answered by Josh MacAlister
The department has funded Adoption England with £8.8 million in the 2025/26 financial year to help develop national approaches for adoption services. This will help ensure the consistency of high quality adoption services across the country. This includes the development of a new framework of support, ‘Becoming a Family’, for the first 12 to 18 months of placement.
Adoption England’s work also involves increasing awareness of trauma informed practice across its workforce and with key partners including schools. We also recently consulted on new standards for social workers, which include recognising and responding to trauma. We will respond to the consultation shortly, and the new standards will underpin a strengthened early career support training offer for newly qualified social workers.
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