Story
Our Story
On 14th April 2025, following a prolonged period of uncertainty regarding the future of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), the UK government announced substantial reductions to its funding parameters. This was done without warning, consultation or supporting evidence. The Fair Access Limit (FAL), the maximum amount available for therapy per child each year, was cut from £5,000 to £3,000 per child. In addition, the £2,500 allocation for specialist assessments and the match-funding provision for children with the highest levels of need were both withdrawn entirely.
The announcement was met with immediate and widespread concern from across the adoption and kinship care community. In response, Action Against ASGSF Changes was established the following day. The campaign, supported by organisations across the adoption, kinship and therapeutic sectors, called on the government to reverse the cuts, to commission an independent consultation, and to suspend any further changes until adequate planning and mitigations could be developed to prevent additional harm to vulnerable children and young adults.
We are a campaign group of adoptive parents and kinship carers. We’ve collected data through our nationwide survey of parents and carers examining the impact of the cuts on children, young adults and their families. We have also collected a large volume of personal stories. We have run a protest march, the first of its kind, delivered petitions and open letters and we have actively engaged with government departments e.g Department for Education and Adoption England. We are also actively engaging with the sectors charities and therapeutic providers.
The campaign has been gaining momentum since April this year, securing cross party MP support, celebrity backing and national media attention.
We're at a point now where unfortunately we can’t afford to underwrite the cost of all of this alone…we wish we could. And we hate asking.
Things we need money for:
*We need to pay for practical things like travel to London from across the country to get to parliament or other meetings. We are all volunteers and are relying on our own limited household incomes to do this work.
*We need to update the campaign website to a provider with better security.
*We need to pay for cloud storage for evidence and videos work we create.
*We have early plans for other campaign work nationwide that will have a financial cost.
All monies will be used for the practical ‘hard’ costs of running a national campaign.
Our time is still being donated.
Accounts will be kept.
No money will be spent without agreement of all campaign organisers.
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