Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending access to the Adoption Support Fund to allow foster children who have experienced trauma to apply for funding for therapeutic services.

The Adoption Support Fund was developed in recognition that children who have left the care system, through adoption or special guardianship orders, were not getting the therapeutic support necessary for them to attach to their new permanent parents and carers.

The law is very clear that children in foster care must have a care plan that sets out their needs and how their local authority will meet them. The care plan should include information about the child’s emotional and behavioural development, and how any emotional or behavioural difficulties are to be managed. It must also include what support should be available to the foster carer to meet the needs of the child.

From 2019 to 2021, the government have invested over £1 million to pilot high quality mental health assessments to maximise learning and inform changes needed to the mental health assessments of looked after children going forward.

The pilots generated considerable learning and we will be working closely with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure learning from the pilots is embedded in service delivery for looked after children moving forward, building on the commitment in the NHS Long-Term plan. The department aims to support pilot sites to embed and sustain the learning and good practice from the pilot within their local areas.