Adoptive therapy funding cuts 'disgusting'
Ms Williams, who describes her daughter as "sassy" with a "wicked laugh", said the fund had been a lifeline for them - giving them a framework to follow in order to support her needs.
'Most vulnerable'
The funding would usually cover specialist occupational therapy, play therapy and time with a counsellor, which Ms Williams says is vital for young people, many of whom have faced early trauma."This support is not a luxury, it's an absolute necessity," Ms Williams said, adding that the cuts were "short sighted". "There will be a cost to the country, because these kids will need to access various things throughout their life, every professional will tell you that the earlier the intervention the better the outcome," she said."Stripping this away from some of the most vulnerable young people in our society is not the answer."
Last year each eligible child could access £2,500 for specialist assessment and £5,000 for therapy. But the therapy limit has now been cut to £3,000 per year, while separate funding for specialist assessment has been axed altogether.While the overall pot remains at £50m, increased demand means it is having to be shared among more families.Campaigners have said that many of these children rely on therapeutic support to help build secure attachments, increase self confidence, and to identify the necessary support functions needed to be put in place in education and family life.They fear the cuts will mean that therapy sessions could come to an abrupt end for some children if the money runs out and their families cannot afford to plug the gap.Alison Woodhead, from Adoption UK, said: "These are kids who have been abused or neglected and these things have a lasting impact. "The decision to cut this fund is just wrong". A Department for Education spokesperson said: "We know how important this support is to families – and through our Plan for Change, we're committed to ensuring adopted and kinship families continue to receive the help they need to thrive."It said that the Fair Access limit (FAL) has been set at £3,000 for 2025-26, in line with the average cost of services for most families, adding that more than half of therapy applications already fell within this limit in 2024-25.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
Cut red tape hindering marine restoration to boost coastal towns
Conservative MPs are urging Labour to cut red tape for marine restoration companies to support coastal communities in decline. The Conservative Environment Network (CEN) warned of the impact on towns of declining tourism and flooding, storms and coastal erosion, in a report outlining measures to help them. The group, which includes dozens of Tory MPs, called for regulation to be streamlined for projects such as the Solent Seascape Project, an initiative to restore saltmarsh, seagrass, oyster reefs, and seabird nesting sites between the Isle of Wight and mainland England. Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins backed the report, calling it a 'valuable conservative contribution for consideration in our ongoing policy renewal programme'. 'Britain's once-buzzing seaside towns are facing growing economic and environmental pressures. The Conservatives are determined to set out a plan to protect our coastal communities and preserve them for future generations,' she said. She added: 'Needless red tape continues to hamstring investment into marine restoration projects that could bring coastal communities jobs, nature-abundant habitats, and protection against the growing threats of climate change.' The network is also calling on Labour to use the flood defences budget to fund more nature-based solutions and to designate more highly protected marine areas in English waters to protect against practices like bottom trawling, in which fishing gear is dragged across the seabed destroying habitats and scooping up a wide array of species. They also want the Government to publish blue carbon codes – frameworks that define how carbon stored in marine habitats like seagrass and saltmarsh can be measured, verified and sold as credits – to unlock more funding for coastal resilience. They say these moves will boost nature recovery as well as local economies through nature tourism and job creation as more projects could get off the ground. Some 67% of English coastal towns are in the Office for National Statistics higher deprivation category and 3,500 properties are in areas at risk from coastal erosion. Kitty Thompson, head of campaigns at CEN, said offering solutions for coastal communities could also help the Conservatives challenge Nigel Farage's Reform UK. 'The teal tide is not inevitable. Reform offers an easy outlet of anger for many coastal towns who have watched their neighbourhoods fade. 'But they won't give these communities the solutions they deserve. If the Conservatives offer a pragmatic, credible alternative that can deliver for coastal communities, then they can challenge Reform in coastal target seats, stopping them in their tracks,' she said. Jacques Villemot, marine rewilding lead for Rewilding Britain, said the current marine licensing framework is outdated and called for the application process for projects to be streamlined. 'This framework urgently needs to be updated to support marine rewilding projects. Though necessary, in its current format marine licensing acts as a blocker, a laborious and costly process which was designed for approving developments like huge oil rigs and large wind farms,' he said.
The Independent
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
Flares thrown during protest outside Canary Wharf hotel housing asylum seekers
Flares have been let off and an arrest made during a demonstration outside a hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers in London. A mixture of men wearing face masks and families with children waved flags and listened to speeches outside the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf on Sunday. Protesters jeered at people going in and out of the hotel, and officers were forced to step in after flares were let off in the crowd, the Metropolitan Police said. A man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker after an officer was pushed. Onlookers chanted 'shame' towards the police as he was carried away. Tourists, shoppers and guests at a nearby hotel stopped to take pictures of the demonstration. A spokesperson for the Met said: 'At one point, officers intervened after flares were let off in the crowd. Several people were searched. No further flares were found. 'One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker after an officer was pushed. He was taken into custody. 'Officers remain in the area to provide reassurance to local residents and businesses, to ensure that any further protest takes place peacefully, and to respond to any incidents.' It is the latest in a series of demonstrations over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers. On Saturday, the force made nine arrests after rival groups gathered outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in Islington, north London. A protest and counter-protest also took place outside the New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle and four people were arrested on suspicion of public order offences, Northumbria Police said. Scotland Yard said plans were in place to 'respond to any protest activity in the vicinity of other hotels in London being used to accommodate asylum seekers'. Elsewhere, Essex Police placed a number of restrictions on a planned protest in Epping on Sunday evening. The force ordered that the demonstration should finish by 8.30pm and must take place in designated areas outside the Bell Hotel, which has been the focus of a series of protests over the last few weeks. Police have also placed requirements on the removal of face coverings until 3am on Monday and have the power to direct anyone committing or suspected of committing anti-social behaviour to leave the area until 8am on Monday.
Telegraph
23 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Palestine activists must not be permitted to flout the will of Parliament
Ever since the October 7 pogrom of 2023, Saturdays on the streets of London and other British cities have been sullied by so-called Palestine solidarity marches. Too often the police have stood aside when chants of dubious legality – coming uncomfortably close to outright praise for the proscribed terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah – have been declaimed by some among the crowds. The police have responded to criticism by stating that what has been witnessed is ambiguous. Next weekend there will be no such ambiguity. After Palestine Action claimed responsibility for breaking into RAF Brize Norton and vandalising two jets in June, Parliament voted in July to proscribe this organisation too – in the Commons, by 385 in favour and 26 against. Expressing support for Palestine Action is now a criminal offence punishable with a term of up to 14 years imprisonment. Campaigners are planning for a mass flouting of the terror laws, with 500 or more activists openly and unambiguously planning to proclaim their support for Palestine Action next Saturday. Their tactic is that the police will have to charge so many with terrorism offences that the courts will be overwhelmed – or else that the law will not be enforced and that it will thus become a dead letter. If trials follow, the campaigners will seek to turn them into spectacles where Israel too rather than just those accused are in the dock. This is now about more than just the rights and wrongs of Israel's response to the Hamas murderers. It is about whether the will of Parliament is enforced on Britain's streets or whether random self-appointed tribunes can overturn laws they do not approve of. It is essential that the police enforce the law to its full extent next weekend. To the demonstrators' favourite chant of 'Whose streets? Our streets', the only correct response is that the streets are not the domain of those who have brazenly come to endorse a group that our elected representatives have deemed to be terrorists. This could not be allowed to happen at the time of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and it cannot be allowed to happen in London now. It is an indictment of the state of our court system that it may not have the capacity to cope with a few hundred arrests, but enforcing the law comes first.
