Adoption Support Fund Extended to 2022

The Department for Education has announced that the Adoption Support Fund will now run until March 2022.

The Adoption Support Fund (ASF) provides funds to local authorities (LAs) and regional adoption agencies (RAAs) to pay for essential therapeutic services for eligible adoptive and special guardianship order (SGO) families.

The ASF model is based on the existing statutory framework for the assessment of adoption support/SGO needs and the provision of support services.

All LAs and RAAs in England are eligible to apply.

Until the end of the financial year 2021 to 2022 the ASF will have two fair access limits:

  • £2,500 per child per year for specialist assessment
  • £5,000 per child per year for therapy

LAs and RAAs must apply to the ASF within three months of assessing a family’s support needs. A funding application should be made before therapy starts.

The programme will remain open until the 31 March 2022.