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The adoption and special guardian support fund (ASGSF) provides funds to local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs) to pay for essential therapeutic services for eligible adoptive, special guardianship order (SGO) and child arrangement order (CAO) families.

The ASGSF will continue to offer support until March 2026.

The ASGSF model is based on the existing statutory framework for the assessment of adoption support, SGO or CAO support needs and the provision of support services.

This guide is for local authorities and RAAs so they can apply for ASGSF funding.

For more information on support available to families, visit:

• and for adoptive families
• and for SGO families about kinship care

Apply to the adoption support fund

Contact the ASGSF fund manager or your adoption support service adviser if you:

• need a new account
• need to register someone new on the system
• want to inform the ASGSF of any new staff or other changes

Funding eligibility

To be eligible for funding, local authorities and RAAs must apply to the ASGSF within 4 months of assessing a family鈥檚 support needs.

The ASGSF is available for children and young people up to and including the age of 21, or 25 with an education, health and care plan, who:

• are living (placed) with a family in England while waiting for adoption
• were adopted from local authority care in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland and live in England
• were adopted from abroad and live in England with a recognised adoption status
• were in care before an SGO was made
• left care under a special guardianship order that was subsequently changed to an adoption order, or vice versa
• are under a residency order or child arrangement order (CAO) and were previously looked after
• were previously looked after but where the adoption, special guardianship, residency or CAO placement has broken down, irrespective of any reconciliation plans

You should make a funding application before therapy starts.

Until the end of June 2025, we are allowing retrospective therapy applications back to 1 April 2025 with the following conditions:

• the application meets the new criteria
• the application is made no longer than 4 weeks after the start date of the therapy
• the reason the therapy started was to avoid a break in therapy or to prevent placement breakdown and
• the application was delayed because of the delayed opening of ASGSF or the application needed to be amended because of the changed criteria

From 1 July 2025, the usual retrospective application rules will apply and DfE will need to approve the application. Exceptional circumstances include:

• the need for an urgent intervention due to the family situation
• an unexpected absence of approving local authority staff when the funding is commissioned

We will not consider administrative and clerical errors, or delays caused by organisational restructuring, as exceptional.

Further guidance for local authorities about the different care orders is available.

Maximum funding allocation for each child

Until the end of March 2026, the ASGSF will have a single fair access limit of:

• 拢3,000 per child per year for therapy

Specialist assessments up to the level of 拢2,500 per child will be considered, but only within the overall 拢3,000 fair access limit.

This will maximise the number of children who are able to benefit from the ASGSF.

How families access ASGSF support

The local authority or RAA that places a child with a family is responsible for assessing that family鈥檚 support needs for 3 years after the order is made. After 3 years, the responsibility lies with the local authority or RAA where the family lives, if they have moved.

Families apply to the relevant local authority or RAA, which will assess their needs.

Local authorities and RAAs will:

• assess the family and consider if therapeutic support is needed
• decide on the type required and if it is eligible for payments from the ASGSF
• apply directly to the ASGSF
• purchase the support from their own list of approved suppliers when the ASGSF approves funding

Contact

Complaints

The (PDF, 252 KB, 4 pages) is available.