'I'm a dad of two adopted kids – therapy cuts are a betrayal of the vulnerable'

A vast number of adopted children have been abandoned by the people who are supposed to love and take care of them. And now they are being let down for a second time – by a Labour government, the party that is supposed to protect the most vulnerable people in our society.

These children carry crippling separation anxiety after being removed from their birth families. They often come from chaotic, violent homes. They have witnessed things no child should. Many have debilitating mental health issues as a result of their parents’ substance abuse, or inherited from families where learning difficulties are rife.

Last month, with no consultation, the government announced cuts to a fund that supports adopted kids or those in kinship care by 40% for each child. The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) is directly targeted at easing these children’s pain and helping them to attempt the kind of life others take for granted. To take an axe to it is indefensible.

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Unlike other benefits, the ASGSF is not delivered via money paid into parents’ accounts to be spent on whatever they want. Instead, it is used to pay for vital therapeutic services and assessments. The money will not be allocated to pay anyone who is not a recognised practitioner. It goes directly to help the children, which makes the decision to reduce it even more troubling.

Both my children face huge challenges as a result of the terrible hands they were dealt at the start of their lives. Managing their issues will be a lifelong battle. I know from first-hand experience that, even before these cuts, accessing the ASGSF could be extremely difficult. Services for adopted kids can be very thin on the ground. And if you don’t have a proper diagnosis for your child’s needs, it can be impossible to identify things that might help them.

You may be lucky enough to have a pro-active social worker who will find services that could be of benefit. But with the care sector under enormous strain, we have often been left to grope in the dark on our own, unaware of what help, if any, is out there. At times, it feels like some kind of twisted treasure hunt, with decent care for your kids as the prize. And because of this, many parents don’t access the fund at all.

Apart from one medical assessment which was inconclusive, my daughter has never accessed the ASGSF. Now that she is approaching adulthood, we need to get a multi-disciplinary assessment to try to properly understand her issues so we can get the best possible support in place for when she leaves school. But the government has completely axed the part of the ASGSF that paid for specialist assessments. Without this diagnosis we will be unable to unlock the help she desperately needs.

My son has received a lot of therapeutic care and assessments through the fund. One diagnosis in particular has been a life-saver as it instantly explained his many challenges. Without the ASGSF, we would never have got it and I honestly don’t know how my family would have survived. If you don’t know what you’re dealing with, it’s impossible to put strategies in place to mitigate it.

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After his diagnosis we were able to get him sessions with a therapist who specialises in trauma and attachment issues which has been a lifeline for him, and us. A port in a storm. He has now fallen out of mainstream education altogether, but we have just secured a new setting that might meet his needs. His therapy sessions will be more vital than ever as he is about to go through yet another unsettling period of change. But these will now have to be cut back because the budget just isn’t there any more.

Both my children are amazing. They face huge challenges with courage, humour and kindness and I am very proud of them. But they need help and support to integrate into a world not set up for neurodiversity. And now the government (a Labour government!) is pulling the rug from beneath them, and thousands of children like them.

I’m a lifelong Labour voter. I was a vocal supporter of Keir Starmer as leader and delighted when he became PM. Never in my wildest nightmares did I imagine that his government would betray the most vulnerable children in society to balance the books. If this cut is not reversed, I will find it difficult to vote Labour again.