Government to consider APPGAP recommendations in autumn Spending Review

The Department for Education will consider the recommendations made by APPGAP in its recent Investing in Families report as part of the forthcoming Spending Review. The report included half a dozen recommendations designed to improve how the fund works for families. 

The first of the these recommendations was to retain the fund until 2030. It’s currently set to expire in July 2020, leading to growing anxiety in the adoption community about the availability of future support.

The report’s recommendations were the result of an inquiry APPGAP ran between April and July into the future of adoption support. The inquiry heard from 1,600 families and services providers about the impact the fund has had for them since its introduction in 2015. The respondents were overwhelmingly positive about the impact of the fund, prompting the group to call for a decade-long commitment from the government.

In responding to a parliamentary question from former shadow minister Emma Lewell-Buck, Zahawi welcomed the inquiry’s findings, echoing his speech at the report’s launch event last week. While the department does not intend to provide a formal response to the Investing in Families report, the Minister did confirm they will consider the report and its recommendations when determining the future of the fund this autumn.