Support with Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) Development Pilots 2025/26

Description

The ASGSF pilots (2025/26) stem from Adoption England's strategic objective to provide adopted people and their families tailored help and support when they need it. The proposed changes will enable Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) to develop services that encourage prevention and early support helping to build firm foundations for good family life for all their families in the region. Lot 1: The pilots will allow the teams to recruit and retain staff and to develop partnerships with health partners, adoption support agencies, Voluntary Adoption Agencies (VAAs) and independent providers, with the aim of improving pathways for children and young people to access support and improve the quality, availability and timeliness of the assessments, providing a better understanding of need. The involvement of in-house teams in delivering and reviewing the delivery of interventions would help to build more comprehensive knowledge of what works and identify and resolve problems at the earliest opportunity, whilst also providing more of a mixed market in provision. The pilots will test the viability of pan-regional commissioning, which most of the RAAs view as a direction of travel to achieve sustainability, consistency and quality of adoption support services as well as services for special guardians in specific areas. The pilots will provide funding to enable the RAAs to develop services and strategic commissioning on a wide geographical footprint and test the impact on outcomes and value for money. The pilots will offer an opportunity to measure the impact on the use of the fund and whether a universal service offer lowers demand for ASGSF-funded services in the long-term.