Figures obtained by CYP Now reveal that nearly half of local authorities have provided top-up funding to a government scheme that pays for therapeutic support for adoptive families.
Data provided by the Department for Education under the Freedom of Information (FoI)Act, shows that over a 15-month period up to 5 January 2018, a total of 74 councils had contributed £686,711 to the cost of post-adoption support through "match-funding" arrangements under the Adoption Support Fund (ASF).
Match funding is used to pay for specialist therapeutic services that exceed government funding caps introduced in October 2015. When an adoptive family - or those caring for a child under a special guardianship order - has an application to the ASF for support or assessment costing more than £5,000 or £2,500 respectively, the amount over the caps must be matched by their council.
Concerns raised
Adoption campaigners have welcomed the additional support authorities have provided through ASF match-funding arrangements, but raised concerns that the majority of councils in England (51 per cent) have made no match-funding applications since the measures were introduced in October 2016.
Sue Armstrong Brown, chief executive of Adoption UK, says: "It is reassuring to see that local authorities are increasingly stepping up to support adoptive families, but we still need to see more authorities positively planning to work with the DfE to fund comprehensive support packages to ensure traumatised children in adoptive homes receive support at the level they need."
Armstrong Brown adds that 54 per cent of respondents to an Adoption UK survey said their attempt to access funding above the caps was unsuccessful, and nearly 30 per cent were told that their local authority was unable to offer match funding because of budget constraints.
"Local authorities are facing increasingly constrained resources, but failing to support traumatised children at an effective level makes no economic sense," she adds. "These are the children that go on to need more educational, health and social service support into adulthood, costing orders of magnitude more than appropriate therapeutic intervention."
Andy Elvin, chief executive of The Adolescent and Children's Trust, says the FoI figures show there are "a small number of children with significant additional needs".
He adds: "Our understanding is that in many authorities it is hard to get the match funding agreed, owing to the extreme current financial pressures. This may well be the prime reason why the match-funding option is not happening so frequently."
The FoI figures show that between October 2016 and 31 March 2017, 74 match-funding applications were approved. In the first nine months of 2017/18, 135 applications had been approved, an increase of 82 per cent. However, some experts point to the high demand for the ASF in 2016/17 as possibly creating a backlog of match-funding applications that were not dealt with until 2017/18.
Out of the 74 authorities to have provided match funding, Norfolk had most applications approved (11), closely followed by Cumbria (10), Gloucestershire and Leeds (both nine).
The highest amount of match funding awarded by a single council was £53,944 by Cumbria, followed by Gloucestershire (£46,979), Leeds (£36,703), Norfolk (£34,038) and Medway (£28,282).
However, some of the amounts provided by councils were small - Halton, North Somerset, Stoke-on-Trent, Tameside and Wolverhampton each had one application approved for support valued at less than £1,000.
Strict criteria
There are strict criteria for what support the ASF will fund. Adoption support agencies are already expected to provide a comprehensive package of help including advice and guidance, counselling, mediating contact with birth families, financial support and short breaks. Meanwhile, the ASF will pay for specialist assessments, approved therapies including cognitive, play and music therapy, and therapeutic training for parents.
Medway Council says: "It needs to be therapy to address why the child was removed from their birth family and for issues affecting them in their adoptive family."
Sarah Johal, head of service for One Adoption West Yorkshire, which now manages adoption services in Leeds, adds: "We [Leeds] prioritised match funding in order to ensure that placements for sibling groups and children with complex needs can be effectively supported and to prevent adoptions breaking down."
According to a DfE-commissioned evaluation published in August 2017, £52m has been spent through the ASF since its launch in May 2015, helping 22,000 children. The government is providing £29m for the fund in 2017/18 and has committed to it until 2019/20.
In November last year, then children's minister Robert Goodwill wrote to local authorities urging them to provide match funding "where this is necessary to meet children's needs".
