Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications made to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund before March 31st 2025 were rejected on the basis that no future funding announcement had been made.

Following an announcement on 1 April, the department is delighted to announce that £50 million has been allocated to the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) for the 2025/26 financial year.

No applications to the ASGSF made before 31 March 2025 have been rejected because no announcement had been made. Any applications which requested funding from April 2025 have either been returned for possible re-submission or held on the system.

Transitional funding arrangements for 2025/26 were communicated to all local authorities and regional adoption agencies on 11 April 2024 and reiterated on 25 October 2024. This meant that we could accept applications which started in the 2024/25 financial year and continued into the 2025/26 financial year. However, they could not begin in the 2025/26 financial year.

The department very much values the work of providers of therapy and recognises that this has been a challenging period. We hope the announcement will help providers, families and children prepare for the year ahead. We will provide additional details for the 2025/26 financial year shortly.