Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support she is providing to adoptive families when attempting to return a child to care.

Returning a child to care should only ever be a last resort. We recognise the significant emotional and practical strain adoptive parents can face, particularly when managing complex needs and trauma. Our priority is to keep families together wherever possible by providing timely tailored support for parents in crisis.

We are investing £50 million into the adoption and special guardianship support fund this year to provide therapeutic services to support children with complex needs to help prevent families reaching crisis. In addition, we have provided Adoption England with £8.8 million so that families can access high quality support provision at all stages of their adoption journey.

When a child must return to care, adoption agencies should maintain a non-judgemental approach and remain actively involved to ensure the process is handled with sensitivity and support. This includes working closely with the adoptive parents to understand the circumstances, providing emotional and practical assistance, and facilitating access to therapeutic services when appropriate.