The start of February has brought with it some very positive and much needed news! It has now been confirmed from the Department for Education that the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) will continue until March 2025. See press release below.
This fund is absolutely critical for children and young people being cared for through adoption or special guardianship arrangements. Without it, a vast number of children and families would not be able to access the therapeutic interventions that assist in achieving the following positive outcomes:
The ASF has 2 fair access limits which are £2,500 per child per year for specialist assessment and £5,000 per child per year for therapy. The fund was introduced in 2015 and since then the Government has invested more than £200m and approximately 61,000 families have benefitted.
There are a wide and varied range of therapies that can be funded including; ‘extensive therapeutic life story work’ and ‘life story work with a therapeutic intervention where therapy is used to help the young person understand and cope with the trauma and difficulties that their life story work might revisit’.
This is absolutely key to our work when very often local services and regional adoption agencies do not have the local funds to ensure that children and young people receive quality life story work. So all in all a big relief and some positive news for us as therapeutic life story work practitioners but most importantly for children, young people and their families and supporters
Article by Nadine Jay, Child Centred Therapy, on behalf of TLSWi
The Adoption Support Fund (ASF) has been secured until March 2025, the Department for Education has confirmed.
This will take the ASF to its tenth year of funding. No details have yet been announced about the size of the fund or any changes to the way it operates, following a review last year.
The ASF funds therapeutic support for families whose children left care through adoption or special guardianship arrangements. These children are likely to have experienced severe trauma prior to coming into care and many need therapeutic support to help them thrive.
Press release source: www.politics.co.uk