The government has spent £7 million on adoption-related services in the last six months, the Department for Education has announced.
The money came from the £19 million allocated to the Adoption Support Fund (ASF). This was designed to pay for various services to help adopted children settle in their new families, such as counselling and therapy.
Official estimates indicate that over 2,000 families have used the ASF since its launch on 1 May.
Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson said it was “absolutely fantastic news” that the fund was so popular. He said it was important for adoptive families to have access to support because some of the children they take in “have been through terrible ordeals which don’t simply disappear once they have settled with their new families”.
However, some believe the fund does not go far enough. When the ASF was rolled out across the country, family charity the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) argued that it should be extended to families which include children placed under special guardianship orders. Access to services was just as important for those families because some such children “experienced similar trauma” to those who had been adopted. In August, the BAAF closed after racking up debts totalling £2.3 million.
For more information on the Adoption Support Fund, click here.
