ASGSF

[Torvy]

Anybody else getting madder and madder about the lack of action on the ASGSF? like... Nobody seems to know what is happening. It isn't being renewed, is it? So now we all just... Don't get the therapy, the support, the stuff we need?

We are in a better position than many in that we could possibly start to fund a much pared back therapy schedule ourselves (with cutbacks!) and have CAMHS involvement in the meantime, but the lack of communication about it is so bitterly disappointing. Every organisation seems to think there would be a last minute reprieve or continuation, but we are 20 days away now and (I desperately hope I'm wrong) but that seems like a very short time frame to have a plan. I mean, it is a short time frame therapy wise, because loads of people will have to end their sessions because funding isn't guaranteed, and closure needs to be had. You can't just be like oh darling, your therapy has stopped now, no you didn't get to say goodbye to your therapist. So they will have to start introducing the idea at least now, unless some split funding allows a bit more time. But then if it is renewed, it's just frustrating - why add another element of drama to some already vulnerable children?!

In the meantime, services that rely on children with these funding streams are going to what, go under? So even if it is ressurected in a few months, they've possibly gone out of business in the meantime?

I just feel so disappointed- we were told that this fund would help our children for the long term, be a pillar of their support offer and now they don't even have the decency to admit that they are specifically not renewing it? Or replacing it? Or that they are but they can't be arsed to communicate it? I don't know, have I missed something somewhere? Is there a government mechanism where a budget is automatically renewed if nobody seems to give a hoot about it that everyone else knows about and I'm just stressing unnecessarily?

I feel particularly angry at the idea that prospective adopters, even now, may be sat in a seminar being told that it's ok, there's this thing called the ASGSF that you can apply to if things get bad, you won't be on your own, with no mention of the fact that even if it is there, it is possible that it won't be later on, or you might use it and then send a few months in limbo worrying about whether some pen pusher will decide to sign of the numbers and decided to leave it to the very last minute.

So many questions. Any nice soothing answers from anyone better connected or in the know than me? Am I getting in a tizzy over nothing? Is there something bigger and better coming? Do we all now go back to the placing authorities (we are within 3 years)/local authorities and say hey, can you support us now?

Ugh. Just feeling despondent and disappointed.

22nd feb I emailed my MP and have not heard a word back. My youngest starts school in sept, and we are expecting the change to cause an upheaval, with the view that she will need more theraplay, but with no support fund I don’t know how we would fund it/ if the service can survive and be available. It’s uncertain times and I don’t think the long term future of the fund is looking good 😢

I completely agree @Torvy.

Writing to our MPs seems to be the only thing we can do right now. https://www.adoptionuk.org/asgsf-campaign

Surprisingly there is no petition (yet).

Is this part of the govt spending review? I don't think its adoption related - every department has to re-bid for all their funding so a vast number of services are waiting on a decision. Civil servants won't be allowed to commit to anything. Agree that it's an absurd process, but my guess is that it will be renewed.

Writing to your MP isn't really going to achieve anything on this.

It's part of the overall government spending review. It's only one of thousands of govt programmes waiting for the outcome.
I worked at the DfE until last year. I'd be very surprised if it didn't continue. It probably won't escape unscathed, but I think its unlikely to be scrapped.

Doesn't this happen every year? Yes it is frustrating but I doubt it will be scrapped, it's the painfully slow wheels of government turning!

This is what I suspect. Dd's social worker was hopeful. They are getting all the bids prepared ready for when funding is announced.

My understanding is that it will continue for up to 12 months for children who have been assessed and are already accessing therapy and they will announce whether it will be continuing at a later date.

I think it has to change though, to be equally accessible to all adopted/Sgo/kinship children as it is very much a postcode lottery and dependent on the quality of the assessor…we were told lo ‘didn’t meet the criteria’ after being promised help. They couldn’t explain what the criteria was but I suspect it was their own parenting programme that they charge the fund for!

Thank you for all your words of advice. It's our first rodeo in terms of it ending (apparently last time it was approved for 3 years or something?) and I didn't realise the level of uncertainty there would be about the renewal. I guess I thought it would be a certain thing (it is definitely how it was presented in training!).

I will logically understand if it doesn't make it through the cuts, but I will be absolutely devastated on behalf of my family. And I still remain angry that it is so late to be decided. Our therapy provider has emailed us saying that it will have a signicant impact on their ability to provide services in the long run because they depend on families who use the adoption support fund, and are aware they wouldn't all be able to privately fund, and asked us to write to our MP about it. We already travel 90 minutes each way every weekend because nowhere near us provides the service, and I don't think we could justify it if we had to travel even further and self fund the therapy too.

I guess we just have to wait and see, but it doesn't look good what with all the cuts and freezes that are currently being announced! Fingers crossed it is more like reform not complete cuts if it does need it.

I'm equally furious. I'm a therapist and am having to explain to the families that I support that not only do I not have funding to support them from 1st April, I can't accept their requests to pay me privately because it's illegal to do any adoption-related therapy with children (in any shape or form) without being Ofsted registered https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adoption-support-agencies-introduction-to-registration/introduction-to-adoption-support-agencies. The law doesn't apply to SGO children so bizarrely i can carry on working with them if the families want to pay. It only applies to adoption. I am also involved with a charity that does a lot of ASGSF work alongside other low cost / no cost work for children and families: salaries won't be covered from 1st April and they are scrabbling to work out how to fill the sudden and significant hole in planned budgets.

I've done what I can:
-- wrote to my MP: luckily Lib Dem so got a reply! Lib Dems have been consistently pushing the Sec of State for Ed for updates, and they have received the same reply SINCE OCTOBER that spending is under review and an announcement will be made in due course
-- asked everyone I know to write to their MP and get them to put their names to this EDM (mostly Lib Dems on it, not a single red or blue name yet) https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/63305/future-of-the-adoption-and-special-guardianship-support-fund
-- signed this petition asking for emergency funding https://www.change.org/p/the-government-must-provide-an-emergency-fund-for-families-waiting-for-the-asgsf and shared it with everyone I know (just had another message from a neighbour who has signed it)
-- written to a random MP (Lewis Cocking, Conservative, Broxbourne, nowhere near where I live) who had tabled the question of whether there would be an assessment of the impact of the delays in announcement, (https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-03-04/35389) asking him to keep asking the same question and pointing out that their reply of "We will, of course, always consider the impact of decisions on vulnerable children." implies a spectacular lack of understanding that it is not the decisions that are impacting these highly vulnerable, traumatised children, but the lack of decisions, and that the impact is already being felt
-- ranted at anyone and everyone I know about how awful the situation is

If anyone reading this can think of anything else I can do, PLEASE tell me. Financially I'll manage as I have what might be called a 'diverse portfolio' of income. But the families I support really, really need me to continue, as do all the other recipients of the nearly 20,000 contracts awarded in the last financial year (2023-24), many of which benefit more than one child.

I feel angry and frustrated about this too @Torvy ! We want to apply for support from the fund but have been told wait until the funding is confirmed (that's if it will be)
@HappyWidcombe Thank you for the links. I've signed the petition and sent it to out to others. Writing to my MP is on my job list for tomorrow! We need MPs to understand the importance of the fund for adopted children and the impact of removing or reducing it.
If I recall rightly, the fund per child was halved a few years back so I wouldn't trust any government not to do something like that again as part of cost cutting. The more of us that raise awareness of it's impact with our MPs, the better.