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

Concepts

• health and social work
• leeds
• adoption support services
• early support
• adoption support agencies
• voluntary adoption agencies
• regional adoption agencies
• adopted people
• adoption
• asgsf-funded services

Location

Yorkshire and the Humber:

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.

Total Quantity or Scope

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.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 85000000 - Health and social work services

Legal Justification

Mott MacDonald Ltd are the only provider to have been commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) to manage the ASGSF and have done so for the past 10 years. They are therefore the only body authorised and able to administer the fund and therefore support the development and delivery of the pilots. No other provider is able to deliver this particular service as they will not have access to the ASGSF, which is a key technical component of the delivery of this pilot. There are no suitable alternatives or substitutes and there has been no artificial narrowing down of the parameters. In light of the fact that only Mott MacDonald Ltd are authorised by the DfE to administer the ASGSF, the Council has no alternative options or choice in selecting another provider.

Other Information

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