We are saddened and disappointed to hear that the government has decided to reduce the therapeutic support available to each child who is adopted or in kinship care through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF). 40% of the funding available per child has been cut and a separate fund for assessments has been withdrawn entirely. 80% of the children adopted according to the Department for Education’s figures for 2023 had experienced abuse and/or severe neglect in their first families. Our population of children are some of the most vulnerable in society with complex needs that requires many years of support. Long-term specialist therapy is a critical part of that support and helps keep parents going, as well as their children.
The families supported by The Belay Foundation are under significant stress. Our families experience challenges with education, health services and accessing community activities and our research with Newcastle University (October 2024) also uncovered significant financial pressures due to additional costs for families and parents unable to work as much as they need to. Removing 40% of much needed specialist therapy for children only increases this stress as well as inhibiting children’s chances for recovery.
For these reasons we are asking the government to reverse this decision and reinstate the previous allocations for assessment and therapy per child. We also ask for this funding to be made permanent. We owe it to the children who have had the worst starts in life to be given the best opportunities for the future.
Founder CEO, staff and trustees of The Belay Foundation
We met in 2018 as parent and Specialist Support Worker and decided to turn our experience into something to help other families in June 2020, registering as a charity in December of that year.
We have benefitted from both receiving and giving practical, trauma-responsive support at home and it has made an enormous difference to our lives. Sarah’s family received the support and stability they all needed from Jade’s trauma-responsive care, and Jade received training and experience to enhance her career development as well as a fulfilling role.
To start with we offered recruitment support to families trying to find trauma-responsive childcare. We have since added services such as benefits advice and comprehensive training. Everything we do comes from a place of deeply understanding the needs of the families we work with.
We work with individual families as well as organisations supporting adoptive, SGO and kinship care families. These include Regional and Voluntary Adoption Agencies, Children’s Services, Children’s Disability Teams, SEND teams and other charities and organisations.
Working in partnership with existing teams around a family gives the best support and we like to work collaboratively with other professionals. We welcome enquiries from families themselves and from professionals referring them.
We also work with the professionals supporting a family to learn about trauma-responsive ways of understanding and helping a child. Perhaps you are a PA already working with a family or a TA in a school working 1:1 with a traumatised child. You might be a Support Worker, Youth Worker, Mentor or Group Leader and feel as if you need to better understand the children and young people you’re working with. We can offer you training and a regular reflective space to support you and develop your practice.
We use the DDP therapeutic model to underpin our organisational approach, training and support. DDP stands for Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and is a treatment that brings together attachment theory, what we understand about developmental trauma, the neurobiology of trauma, attachment and caregiving, intersubjectivity theory and child development. Find out more here: About DDP – DDP Network
This model informs how we interact with everyone, and how we offer support to professionals, parents, and the children our Specialist Support Workers look after. We offer DDP PACE training to our Specialist Support Workers and these trainings are also open to other professionals interested in using this approach DDP PACE Training – DDP Network.
The Belay Foundation is a charity helping families whose children have suffered early life trauma.
Registered Charity in England and Wales No. 1192653
© 2025 The Belay Foundation. All rights reserved.
