Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the market cost of therapeutic support interventions delivered via the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, and what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the new reduced Fair Access Limit of £3000 per application to cover the support required, based on those costs.

The department took a range of factors into account when setting the new £3,000 fair access limit for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF). In the 2024/25 financial year, the average cost per ASGSF recipient was £3,170 for therapy and £2,399 for specialist assessments (£3,090 overall). In addition, since July 2024, the department has collected detailed data on the costs of applications for therapeutic interventions and specialist assessments funded by the ASGSF. Using this information, the department assessed that £3,000 could fund an average of 19-20 hours of therapy, on the basis of median hourly rates for contact time and allowing for additional costs.

Where ASGSF funding has been used for a specialist assessment, remaining funding up to the £3,000 fair access limit may be used for therapy, where this is assessed as being needed. If appropriate, local authorities and regional adoption agencies may use their own funding to offer extra therapy.