Record numbers of adoptive families in England* are under "great strain" from the "severe challenges" they are facing, as most continue to struggle to secure the post-adoption support they need.
Those were among the findings from Adoption UK's latest Adoption Barometer, its annual stocktake on the lives of adopters and adoptees, based on their experiences during 2024.
On the back of the research, the charity dubbed the adoption system "not fit for purpose", because it neglected to provide adoptees with the long-term support they needed to thrive and deal with the impact of of the abuse, trauma, loss and neglect they had experienced.
The findings predate the government's cuts this year to payments to fund therapy through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), which has already led to a worsening of children's mental health, according to a separate survey by campaigners.
Adoption UK said ministers needed to ensure families received "robust support plans" that were "regularly reviewed, particularly at moments of major change", while also providing ring-fenced, permanent funding for well-evidenced therapeutic support for adoptees, amid uncertainty over the ASGSF's future.
Record numbers of adoptive families 'facing severe challenges'
The survey received 1,867 responses from established adoptive families in England - those whose adoption was finalised before 2024 -who between them had over 2,700 children.It found 42% of this group had faced severe challenges that had placed their family under great strain in 2024. This was a record high, up from the 38% recorded by Adoption UK in 2023 and 30% in 2022. The proportion was higher, at 56%, among families with children or young people aged 13-25.
At the same time, the proportion of families who had experienced violent or aggressive behaviour from their child during the year rose to 65%, up from 60% in 2023 and 57% in 2022.
Adoption UK said this reflected the "well established" link between exposure to complex childhood trauma and difficulties regulating emotions (source: UK Trauma Council). Seven in ten respondents said their children had known (55%) or suspected (15%) social, emotional and mental health needs, with 66% reporting they had known (45%) or suspected (21%) attachment difficulties.
Struggle for post-adoption support
Just over three-quarters of established families (77%) said it felt like a continuous struggle to get the support that their children needed, a similar proportion to 2023.Over half (56%) contacted their adoption agency with a specific support need - most commonly issues relating to education and support with violent and aggressive behaviours - at the point of crisis or because they were facing significant challenges.
Two-thirds of this group (68%) were offered an enhanced support service - something behind information and advice - such as therapy for the child or parent or a multidisciplinary assessment. Though this was a similar proportion to previous years, Adoption UK stressed that this meant that nearly a third of families in crisis or facing significant challenges were only being offered information and advice or were having to wait for enhanced support.
The adoption support legal framework
- Councils must maintain an adoption support service to meet the needs of children who may be adopted, their parents or guardians, prospective and actual adoptive parents, adoptees, birth parents and former guardians (Adoption and Children Act 2002, section 3(2)(b))
- On request, councils must assess the adoption support needs of the above groups, plus those of the children of adoptive parents, the natural siblings of adoptive children and close relatives or certain people with close relationships to the adoptive child (2002 act, section 4(1)).
- Should the council decide that the person has needs for adoption support, they must decide whether to provide a service to them (2002 act, section 4(4)).
- Adoption support services comprise counselling, advice and information (2002 act, section 2(6)), along with financial support, arranging support groups, assistance with contact with birth families, therapy, training and assistance where there has been, or there is a risk of, disruption (the Adoption Support Services Regulations 2005, regulation 3).
- The 2005 regulations specify which adoption support services must be extended to which groups (regulation 4), though the duty to provide any such service to a particular person is dependent on the council's determination following an assessment.
Greater satisfaction with ASGSF than agency support
Similarly to 2023, just 52% of those who received enhanced support via their adoption agency were satisfied with it. By contrast, 85% of those who accessed ASGSF-funded support during 2024 said it had had a positive impact on their family, while 94% stated they would be likely to seek further support through the fund in future.In that light, Adoption UK reiteriated its criticisms of the Department for Education's (DfE) decisions to cut standard annual funding limits for ASGSF-funded therapy from £5,000 to £3,000, end match funding of more expensive services by the fund and scrap the separate £2,500 allowance for specialist assessments.
While the government has confirmed the fund's continuation through 2026-27, its future beyond that is uncertain, with a public engagement exercise on it planned for next year.
The charity said adoptive families needed "urgent reassurances about how access to therapeutic support will be based on the needs of children and families and safeguarded for the long term", with any decisions based on "thorough consultations", in which their views were "fully considered".
Prospective adopters' experiences positive overall
In contrast to the position in relation to support, Adoption UK found the experiences of prospective adopters or those in the early stages of adoption to be positive overall, based on findings from 629 respondents. These included that:- 85% said their social worker understood and supported them during the approvals process.
- 81% said everything possible was done to find the right match for them and their adopted child.
- 69% said they were given all the information they needed about their child before they moved in, though this was down from 73% in 2023.
- 64% said they received life story materials by the end of the year in which the adoption order was obtained, the highest rate yet recorded in the Adoption Barometer.
At the time of the survey, the adoption support plan was not a standalone document but embedded in the adoption placement report, meaning some adopters may not have recognised it as such, said Adoption UK. Earlier this year, in line with a long-time Adoption UK objective, a standalone adoption support plan, developed by CoaramBAAF, was launched.
Adoption system 'frontloads attention'
Adoption UK said its findings showed that the adoption system "frontloads attention on finding adoptive families for children but then neglects the long-term support most adoptees need to thrive once adopted"."The system is still based on the fallacy that being adopted is the fairy-tale ending," said chief executive Emily Frith.
"But it is only the beginning of the story for children who have faced incredibly traumatic starts in life and who must grow up away from their birth families. Despite consistent evidence of the life-long challenges for adopted people, most families tell us that help evaporates as their child gets older and adoptees say support is virtually non-existent in adulthood."
In relation to the latter point, the charity surveyed 281 adult adoptees for its research, just 16% of whom said they felt confident that a range of therapeutic services were available to them as an adopted person.
Recommendations
On the back of its research, Adoption UK called for:- adoptive families to be given robust support plans that were regularly reviewed, particularly at moments of major change, such as the move between primary and secondary school and the transition to adulthood;
- ring-fenced, permanent funding for well-evidenced therapeutic support for adoptees of all ages, combined with opportunities for adoptees to connect with each other for mutual support;
- training for health and education professionals from the start of their careers to equip them to understand and meet the needs of the adoptees they will be expected to support;
- reliable support for adult adoptees to access personal adoption records, connect with birth families and be able to access the health treatment they need even if their family medical history is unknown.
