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Adoption Support Fund rolled out

A £19 million fund to help families settle in newly adopted children launched nationwide today.

The Adoption Support Fund (ASF) will pay for services such as behavioural therapy, play and music therapy, and family support sessions.

Minister for Children and Families Edward Timpson announced the ASF last November following a successful pilot scheme. He said it would be “a vital lifeline for many adoptive families, helping them to access specialist support services when their family needs them most.”

Mr Timpson said these services were necessary because adopted children “have often lived through terrible experiences which do not just simply disappear overnight” once they are placed with a new family.

Specialist charity The British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) welcomed the new fund. They said that, last year, 62 per cent of children in care had suffered abuse or neglect, so “more comprehensive post adoption support” was a positive step.

However, BAAF also called for more families to have access to it. They said it should also be made available to families who have children under special guardianship and those with children adopted internationally.

Dr John Simmonds is head of Policy, Research and Development at BAAF. He said that such children “have often experienced similar trauma to those adopted from care” yet there “still isn’t funding available” for them.

The blog team at Stowe is a group of writers based across our family law offices who share their advice on the wellbeing and emotional aspects of divorce or separation from personal experience. As well as pieces from our family law solicitors, guest contributors also regularly contribute to share their knowledge.

Comments(2)

  1. Name Witheld says:

    For those of us who have done nothing wrong and social services screwed up there is no help. These children who have had awful experiences deserve help but there are agencies that are available, through the SS and NHS and they will get priority, just like they will in education. No worries about getting them into the best schools. Where is the help when the SS and the whole family court mess get it wrong for the birth parents and extended family. The social workers abused our family and left emotional wreckage I will take to my grave. I spent over £35k to try and prove they were wrong before I realised we had been set up and our GD targeted for adoption from the very beginning, even before experts gave opinions, that were warped by SS interference to ensure they got the result. That those really responsible,the doctors and nurses I witnessed causing the injuries would be be getting away with it scott free. The birth midwife deliberately avoiding telling the whole truth about what happened during the delivery.
    The birth parents support teams are a joke, a complete joke. Parents who have had children taken considered not worthy of any help. Parents having to relying on Internet sites for support. If adoptive parents are willing to accept the children into their family, they will get help and priority via so many NH services. Why do they need this money. They are happy to take the children. That should be warts and all. Most do not give a fig about the parents why should I pay through my taxes for them to get help.

  2. Gitanjali says:

    It is the bad luck of some children that even after going through so many hardships in their life, they again face difficult times in foster care homes. Luckily there are a few good foster homes like UK Fostering, which ensure bright future and good care for the underprivileged kids. They ensure that the children living in the foster care home as well as with the foster parents get all the facilities for a smooth life. To help the adoptive parents, the fostering agency also provides them required training and other support.

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