Latest news with #AdoptionUK
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Adoptive therapy funding cuts 'cruel'
A father has described government cuts to therapy funding for adopted children as "extremely cruel". Jeremy Wilson, from Somerset, has three adopted children and said if he'd known about the funding, it would have been "so helpful" for their upbringing. The government announced in April that the adoption and special guardianship support fund would be cut by 40% per child, to £3,000. The Department for Education said the decisions it had taken "will ensure the fund is financially sustainable to allow more vulnerable children to access targeted support". More news stories for Somerset Listen to the latest news for Somerset Mr Wilson, who lives near Bridgwater, with his wife Clare, said: "Therapy for adopted children is vitally important. "They have suffered so much harm and damage to get to the point of being adopted – some assistance is vital for their wellbeing. "I understand the need to balance costs by the government, but at the same time we need to prioritise which services should or shouldn't be cut. "I think this is an easy option, the adoptive children are part of a forgotten group." Last year, each eligible child could access £2,500 for specialist assessment and £5,000 for therapy. But the separate funding for specialist assessment has now been axed and the therapy limit has been cut to £3,000 per year. Nearly 20,000 children received support through the scheme last year, up from around 13,000 in 2019/20. Campaigners have said that many of these children rely on therapeutic support to help build secure attachments, increase self confidence, and to identify the necessary support functions needed to be put in place in education and family life. Alison Woodhead, from Adoption UK, said: "These are kids who have been abused or neglected and these things have a lasting impact. "The decision to cut this fund is just wrong". A Department for Education spokesperson said: "We know how important this support is to families – and through our Plan for Change, we're committed to ensuring adopted and kinship families continue to receive the help they need to thrive." It said that the fair access limit has been set at £3,000 for 2025-26, in line with the average cost of services for most families, adding that more than half of therapy applications already fell within this limit in 2024-25. Follow BBC Somerset on Facebook and X. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Adoptive therapy funding cuts 'disgusting' - mother Charities criticise 'distressing' cuts to adoption fund
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Funding cuts had ‘devastating' effect on adopted children, UK charities say
A growing number of adopted children are at risk of returning to the care system as funding cuts and lack of support pushes England's families into crisis, charities have warned. Adoption UK said cuts to funding were already having a 'devastating' effect on children who have been adopted, describing them as 'morally and economically nonsensical'. 'We've had hundreds and hundreds of families call our helpline or come along to events to express their concerns. I've worked in adoption now for nearly 10 years, I've never seen anything like this,' said Alison Woodhead, the director of public affairs and communications at the charity. 'People have been saying they're worried their children will commit suicide – families are at breaking point, and without support they're worried that the family might not be able to stay together, that children will end up back in the care system.' In April, the government announced a 40% cut in the amount available for each child from the annual £50m adoption and special guardianship support fund – money sent to local authorities and regional adoption agencies to provide therapy for adopted children. Woodhead said it was a 'crucial pot of money that has been transformational in lots of children's lives' and the cuts would have a huge impact. 'It is both morally and economically nonsensical because these children who desperately need the support will cost more further down the track if they don't get it,' Woodhead said. 'Adopted children are already massively overrepresented in criminal justice statistics, in not in education, employment or training statistics, do worse in school than their peers. It's just setting the children up to fail further and symbolic of a general sense that adopted children are being let down.' She also said the cuts could worsen the decline in adoptive parents in the country – from 2013 to 2023, the number of families approved to adopt in England decreased by almost 60%. 'The government is spending quite a lot of money on a recruitment campaign to try to get prospective adopters. But if the bigger picture is that you adopt a child, you don't get support, and then your child ends up back in the care system, that's not a very enticing prospect. So they're also shooting themselves in the foot.' The charity's annual adoption barometer showed 38% of adoptive families were facing severe challenges or reaching crisis point in 2023, a rise from 22% in 2022. The number of children who left their family prematurely (for example, to return to the care system or to live in assisted accommodation) was 7% that year, up from 3% in 2021, and the charity is expecting numbers to rise. Tracy Beaumont, from Ridley & Hall solicitors' adoption legal centre, said they are being inundated by calls from families across the country in 'absolute crisis', and seeking legal advice on returning their child to the care of their local authority. 'Many of the parents, unfortunately, they've tried everything. They've tried to get the support and the help, they've done absolutely everything, and they're just at a point of crisis as a family,' she said. She advises people on how to apply, through section 20 of the Children Act 1989, for the local authority to accommodate a child in need, a process which she says is 'extremely traumatic' for those involved and a 'last resort'. It can then lead to court proceedings for a care order. 'A lot of my clients think that it could have been prevented but obviously local authorities have limited resources anyway, and then the government have just cut the adoption support fund. They need the right support at the right time,' she said. 'The parents are really traumatised by the whole experience, and then the poor children at the heart of this end up back in care.' A Department for Education spokesperson said: 'We know how important this support is to families – and through our plan for change, we're committed to ensuring adopted and kinship families continue to receive the help they need to thrive. 'We are investing £50m for the adoption and special guardianship support fund to continue for another year with children still being able to access £3,000 in therapy support each year. 'The decisions we have taken will ensure the fund is financially sustainable to allow more vulnerable children to access targeted support.'
BBC News
24-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Adoption fund delay creates uncertainty for East Yorkshire mums
Two single mums say they face an uncertain time after vital therapy sessions for them and their adopted children came to an abrupt from Hull, and Heidi, from East Yorkshire, had been receiving support they described as a "lifeline" through the adoption and special guardianship support fund, but that stopped after a delay in confirming it would continue left many in will also be a 40% reduction in the amount families can apply for, which the government said would allow more vulnerable children to access whose adopted six-year-old daughter has complex needs, said the sessions were essential to her "as a single adopter with not a great support network". She added: "It's that weekly session for myself, where I'm not judged, I'm supported."The amount available to each eligible child through the fund has dropped from £5,000 a year to £3,000 a year for therapy, while a specialist assessment service has been 20,000 children received support through the scheme last year, up from about 13,000 in and Families Minister Janet Daby said she regretted the delay but said £50m had been allocated for the fund this the funding, Nicky's daughter had been receiving developmental psychotherapy and relationship therapy to help with attachment trauma."Without it, we're screwed," Nicky said. "It's so vital for her development."[The government] are playing with people's lives. We've got enough going on, we've got enough battles, without having this uncertainty of when we will receive the funding and therapy again." Nicky and Heidi became friends when they met during adoption 35, adopted her children from birth and received funding last year that provided her with parent training."Living on your own, it's a really, really lonely journey," said the former nurse."Due to the complex needs of my children, I'm very isolated."The therapist was the one person I could talk to who I knew would understand what was happening, and that's now abruptly stopped."We've got no respite, and now we've not even got the one bit of therapy that was keeping us alive."[The cuts] have essentially meant that whatever therapy you're getting, there's going to be less of it." 'Cliff-edge problem' Alison Woodhead, from Adoption UK, said the charity was getting an increasing number of calls to its helpline."Families are feeling a mixture of anger, distress and fear about the future," she said."Adopted children often have a very difficult start in life and the thing they need above all is consistency and certainty."And because this fund is set up in a way that it has to be renegotiated every year, every year we have this cliff-edge problem, where families are left waiting to know if their child's therapy can continue."This year, it's been a total car crash."A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Children in care are some of the most vulnerable in our society, and our Plan for Change will ensure they get the support they need to thrive."The decisions we have taken will ensure the fund is financially sustainable to allow more vulnerable children to access targeted support and thrive in adoptive and kinship families." Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
BBC News
15-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Backlash over 'distressing' cuts to adoption fund
Charities have criticised the government for cutting the amount of funding families in England can access to pay for therapy for adopted children by 40%.Adoption UK said the news was "distressing" for families, who had already faced "an agonising wait" to find out whether the adoption and special guardian support fund would year each eligible child could access £2,500 for specialist assessment and £5,000 for therapy. But the therapy limit has now been cut to £3,000 per year, while separate funding for specialist assessment has been government said the move would "ensure the fund is financially sustainable to allow more vulnerable children to access targeted support". In an email to stakeholders, seen by the BBC, the Department for Education said the "difficult decision" came as demand for the fund "continues to grow significantly".Nearly 53,000 children have received support through the fund since it began in 2015. The future of the fund had been in doubt, until the government confirmed at the last minute that it would continue in 2025/26. In response to an urgent question in the House of Commons on 1 April - the day after the fund expired - Children and Families Minister Janet Daby said £50m had been allocated for this year. The overall funding for the scheme remains the same as last Adoption UK said the cut in the amount available per child would have "a direct impact on children and young people who have had a very tough start in life".The charity's chief executive, Emily Frith, said the decision was "very short-sighted at a time when there are more adoptive families in crisis than ever before". Families 'in disbelief' Louisa - not her real name - has used the fund to provide therapy for her two adopted sons and said it "changed our lives". "Without it, we fear for their future, their ability to function in the world, attend school, be safe to others and themselves, and for our family stability," she told the BBC. Louisa said her own family and others affected were "anxious, fearful, sad and in disbelief at what [the cut] means for their children".For the last two years, her eldest has used the maximum allocation of funding for had already been forced to stop his therapy sessions at the end of January because future funding had not been confirmed, leaving the family in "limbo" and "watching the decline in front of our eyes". Louisa said this meant he had not been able to attend school full-time and she feared he would continue to go backwards if he could no longer get the same level of support. She is also concerned that after her youngest has a specialist assessment, there will be little funding left for therapy. Liberal Democrat spokesperson for education, children and families Munira Wilson has written to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson calling on her to reverse the cuts. Wilson said she was "extremely disappointed" the government had "slipped out" the announcement over the Easter break. In her letter, she said the cuts were causing "immense worry and stress" for families and "cannot be justified". The charity Kinship, which represents friends and families who step in to raise a child when parents are not able to, said the news was a "further blow", after therapy had been disrupted by the delay in renewing the scheme. Chief executive Dr Lucy Peake said the government's "confused and ill-considered approach" of boosting awareness of the scheme but not supporting this with extra funding "risks pushing more families to breaking point". Charities said the announcement would mean further delays for families trying to access therapy, while adoption agencies made adjustments to funding applications. The fund is available for adopted children and young people up to the age of 21, as well as those aged up to 25 if they have an education, health and care plan. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
