The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund

What the fund pays for

The ASGSF pays for therapeutic services that help adopted children process early experiences and build secure relationships within their adoptive family. The kinds of therapy commonly funded include:

Creative therapies — music, art, play, and drama therapy. Theraplay and other attachment-focused interventions. Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). Sensory integration therapy, where a child’s early experiences have left them struggling with sensory processing. Filial therapy, which combines family therapy and play therapy techniques. Life story work. Therapeutic parenting programmes designed for adoptive families.

Specialist assessments — for example, a sensory processing assessment by an occupational therapist, or a fuller psychological assessment — can also be funded, but since April 2025 these come out of the same £3,000 limit rather than being funded separately.

The fund does not pay for general educational support, respite care, legal costs, or anything not directly related to a child’s emotional wellbeing or family relationships. CAMHS and NHS services remain the route for mainstream mental-health support; the ASGSF is for therapeutic interventions that sit outside what mainstream services typically provide.

How much is available

The current fair access limit is £3,000 per child per year. This applies for the financial year — 1 April to 31 March — and does not roll over to the next year if unused.

Specialist assessments fall within the £3,000 limit. Until April 2025 the fund had a separate £2,500 envelope for specialist assessments that stacked on top of the main limit; that arrangement has ended.

Until April 2025 the fund also operated a match-funding mechanism for cases requiring more than the fair access limit, with the local authority covering 50% above that level up to a maximum of £30,000 per child. That match-funding has also been removed. The £3,000 figure is now a hard ceiling for the fund’s contribution.

Some families with complex needs that exceed £3,000 in a year find that the local authority continues to fund the additional cost from its own budget. Whether that happens depends on the local authority and on the assessment of need. It is not automatic.

The £3,000 limit will apply for the 2025–26 and 2026–27 financial years. Beyond that, a public engagement process is under way and figures may change.

Who is eligible

The fund is available for children and young people who are:

• Living in a placement for adoption in England, before the adoption order is made
• Adopted from local authority care in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland and now living in England
• Adopted from abroad with a recognised adoption status, and now living in England
• Children who left care under a special guardianship order, child arrangement order, or residency order, where the order was preceded by being looked after
• Children whose adoption or special guardianship placement has broken down

The age limit is 21, or 25 if the child has an Education, Health and Care Plan.

The fund is for children in England. Devolved nations have their own arrangements — adopted children living in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland do not access the ASGSF.

How applications work

Families do not apply to the ASGSF directly. The application is made by the local authority or regional adoption agency on the family’s behalf, after an assessment of the child’s needs.

For the first three years after the adoption order, the local authority that placed the child is responsible for assessing your family’s support needs and applying to the fund. After three years, that responsibility transfers to the local authority where you currently live — which may or may not be the same one. Children placed for adoption but not yet at the adoption order are also covered, with the placing local authority making any application.

The process runs in roughly this order. The family raises a need with the relevant local authority. The local authority carries out an assessment of need. If therapy is recommended and the family agrees, the local authority identifies an approved provider and applies to the ASGSF for funding before therapy starts. The fund aims to respond within a few weeks. Therapy then begins, with the provider invoicing the local authority, which is reimbursed by the fund.

Retrospective applications — for therapy that has already started — are only granted in exceptional circumstances. It’s worth getting the application in before therapy begins.

Jigsaw’s role in the process

Jigsaw is not the body that applies to the fund — that’s always the local authority or regional adoption agency. What we can do depends on where you are in the process.

During placement, before the adoption order, your placing local authority makes any application. We can help you think through whether therapeutic support might be useful, and we’ll work with the local authority on the practical side.

For the first three years after the adoption order, the placing local authority is still your point of contact for assessment and applications. We remain available if you want a steer on what to ask for.

After three years, the local authority where you live takes over. By that point most of our involvement is signposting — pointing families towards the right organisation for the question they’re trying to answer.

Recent changes and current status

The fund has changed materially in the past two years. The headline figure was £5,000 per child per year plus a separate £2,500 for specialist assessments until April 2025. From April 2025 the limits were reduced to a single £3,000 envelope covering both, and the match-funding mechanism above the fair access limit was removed. These changes affected funding levels mid-year and were litigated extensively in the press at the time.

The fund’s continuation has also been short-term. Funding was confirmed for 2025–26 only at the start of April 2025. The extension to March 2028 was announced in February 2026, giving longer notice and slightly more planning certainty.

A public engagement process on the fund’s future is running through 2026. Figures, eligibility criteria, and the application mechanism may change as a result. The most current information is on the GOV.UK page for the fund: Adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF).

Related reading

For an overview of the support Jigsaw provides directly, see our adoption support page. For the official guidance on eligibility and application, see GOV.UK.

Last reviewed 08/05/2026.