Adoption & Fostering

Helping children to recover from traumatic experiences is a difficult task and we are aware of the particular challenges faced by foster carers, adoptive parents, special guardians, social workers and other professionals.

Adoption & Fostering Psychologists

We offer a wide range of services, including:

Our psychologists are specialised in working with children and young people who are experiencing trauma and attachment difficulties, and we offer a number of services targeted at supporting and optimising the fostering and adoption process. We consider the whole child and their environment when thinking about their strengths and needs, including current functioning at home, school and with their peers, family relationships, experiences in school, trauma history, attachment relationships and neurodevelopmental factors. 
We use a “bio-psycho-social” model to incorporate up to date knowledge within a range of areas to best understand a child and their experiences in order to inform how best to support them to reach their potential.

We use a range of clinically appropriate psychometric tools to evaluate interventions and help to monitor change towards our clients hopes and goals. We have contributed towards the pilot evaluation of the ASF and have found that 95 percent of the children and families we work with indicate improvement.   

"The agency is committed to and succeeds at improving the lives of adopted children and their families. It provides high-quality and effective therapeutic services."

Ofsted, March 2023

Adoption Support Funding

The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) was introduced as many adoptive and specialist guardianship families require some kind of therapeutic support. To find out more this funding, we have an ASGSF Information Sheet available, or you can visit the ASGSF Website.
Our practice is registered with Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills and has been accredited as an  ‘Outstanding’ Adoption Support Agency. To read our 2023 ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted report, please click here.
For details of our official registration on the Ofsted website please click here
Psychology Associates is also a member of CASA (the Consortium of Adoption Support Agencies), a group of independent Adoption Support Agencies (ASAs) who are registered under the Adoption and Children Act 2002.
We meet regularly with the Department for Education and Mott MacDonald and provide consultation around evaluation of and changes in adoption support. 
Visit the CASA website for more information.

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Testimonials

Ofsted 2023

As you may be aware, on the 14th April 2025 the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) announced changes to the Fair Access limit with a reduction of funding to £3000 and the discontinuation of the separate Fair Access Limit for specialist assessments.

We are currently working really hard to amend quotes for ongoing therapy work to fit within the new Fair Access Limit and working closely with Adopt South West and other local RAAs. We are also working closely with other specialist adoption support providers and therapeutic organisations including DDP connects and Theraplay UK to explore how we can continue to deliver specialist therapies within this limit.

If you are waiting for a new package of therapy please look out for correspondence from ASW or your regional adoption support agency, as they will need to regain your consent for the amended therapy contract.

If you are concerned about the impact of the delay on your family or have questions about the therapy or assessment you are waiting for please get in touch with Ellen or Jen and we will do our best to support you.

We will be contributing to a wider response to this and the following is a link to a petition requesting government action – Petition · Action Against ASGSF Changes (Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund) – United Kingdom · Change.org