A new programme of support from Adoption England (funded by the DfE), has been awarded to three Voluntary Adoption Agencies (VAA) to enhance the provision of early, preventative adoption support across England, specifically designed to reach adopted children, teenagers and families over the next two years.

The VAA Early Support Innovation Fund – worth up to £100,000 per project per year – will back ambitious, pan-regional pilots that strengthen trauma‑responsive practice, reduce crisis escalation and fully harness the skills, knowledge and resources of the voluntary sector to ensure better services are available to all children, young people and families.

The fund forms part of a national shift towards earlier, planned intervention rather than reactive, high‑cost therapeutic responses, echoing wider reforms in adoption support announced by the Department for Education. 

A new era of early adoption support

The fund aims to test how VAAs, working as strategic partners with RAAs, can deliver funded early support that is accessible to all adoptive families in a region, not just those approved by VAAs. It aims to ensure that children and families can access consistent, timely and proportionate support, aligned with the developing national model of adoption support.

The three successful bids demonstrate how VAAs intend to use their expertise to address predictable pressure points in the adoption journey, particularly adolescence, education transitions, and family isolation. The pilots will explore whether planned, block funded early support can improve access, equity and outcomes for adopted children and their families.

Adoption Matters and Caritas Care (North‑West): “Inner World” Teen Programme

Adoption Matters and Caritas Care will work with all the Regional Adoption Agencies across the North West to jointly deliver a pan‑regional programme for pre‑teens and teenagers aged around 11-16, identified as a key pressure point in the North‑West’s needs assessment. Their Inner World programme will offer:

• Eight online therapeutic group sessions for up to 20 young people (three groups in year one) exploring key themes such as identity and sense of self, friendships and relationships and health and wellbeing
• Supporting resources for teens and pre-teens
• Specialist input from trauma‑informed practitioners and sensory occupational therapists
• Creative and music‑based engagement
• Parent, carer and school supporting materials and webinars
• A train‑the‑trainer model to build long‑term regional capacity
• Follow-up and connection to wider support including peer and multidisciplinary pathways

The programme is designed to increase confidence and emotional regulation, peer connection, identity development and early intervention before escalation. A small pilot already showed teens describing the sessions as “a safe space” and “somewhere they get me,” with parents reporting calmer behaviour and improved school engagement.

The programme has been developed alongside all North-West RAAs and will be available to adopted children and young people from across the region. It aims to engage with teens and pre-teens, building peer support and communities using formats that are best suited to their interests and taking into consideration the views of children and young people so that they help shape the provision.

PACT (South‑Central): Early Education Pathways

Parents And Children Together (PACT), partnering with Adopt Thames Valley, Buckinghamshire Adoption and Coram, will deliver a proactive education‑focused model addressing one of the most common routes into crisis: school difficulties for children primary-aged school children.

The model comprises three integrated services co-designed with adopters and teachers, aiming to address predictable, early emerging education challenges before they escalate into crisis. The services will be accessed via a single front door and are designed to work together to deliver early, predictable, scalable support pan-region. The pilot aims to reduce discrimination of adopted children’s education experiences to improve educational and emotional wellbeing outcomes and raise awareness of the impact of chronic childhood trauma on brain development and behaviour.

Their three‑strand programme includes:

• Early Education Consultations for families and schools
• Parent Education and Self‑Advocacy Pathways to build confidence navigating Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs|) and behaviour policies
• A new Education Pathways Hub within PACT’s digital platform CATCH, offering trauma‑informed, accessible resources and practical tools for parents, teachers and SENCOs

The programme responds to evidence that adopted children are significantly more likely to face exclusion, attendance anxiety and behavioural misunderstanding in school settings. By intervening early - often before children start school - the programme aims to reduce escalation into high‑cost statutory or Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) interventions.

This aligns closely with national reforms emphasising earlier, targeted education support for adopted children entering key transitions such as Year 7. 

Yorkshire Adoption Agency Consortium: Village – peer led mutually supportive adoptive family villages

Yorkshire Adoption Agency, working with Adoption Matters, Barnardo’s, Adopters for Adoption and the three Regional Adoption Agencies across the Yorkshire region, will pilot peer led mutually supportive adoptive family Villages across the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Inspired by the Mockingbird model, each “village” will be led by a trained adopter and supported by adoption professionals. These specialist villages will provide an opportunity for adoptive families to meet informally and develop mutually supportive relationships between the adult adopter group and their adopted children. Villages will be developed, coordinated and supported by an experienced adoption support social worker and a local family support worker.

The model provides:

• Monthly peer‑led meet‑ups supporting peer to peer relationship building
• Informal relational support for adopters and children
• Early identification of emerging needs and support in accessing wider services
• Direct access to professional advice and support
• Delegated budgets for family activities
• Specialist villages for teens, Global Majority families or transracial adopters

The consortium expects 40-60 families to benefit during the pilot, with potential long‑term reach of 200-300 families. This pilot has the potential to provide long-term support for adoptive families given the anticipated needs of many of the children.

The model aims to reduce isolation, strengthen resilience, being able to respond to increasing needs and risks over time before they hit crisis point. This bid responds to national evidence showing adoptees often lack community connection and that peer support is highly valued by families. 

A national shift toward prevention

The three funded pilots reflect the government’s wider move toward early, consistent adoption support, including new transition support for children entering secondary school. Ministers have emphasised the need for “better, earlier, and more targeted help” for adopted children and kinship families. 

Sarah Johal MBE, National Adoption Strategic Lead at Adoption England said: “This funding is really exciting as it’s the first time we have been able to directly support VAAs and enable closer collaboration between VAAs and RAAs to provide a more consistent early adoption support offer.

She continued: “It’s also all about innovation and trying new models and ways of working, which is reflected within the three pilot projects. These are really unique, helping to bring adoptive families closer together, overcoming some of the most difficult challenges in adopted families’ lives and giving children and young people the type of support they really want. We’re really looking forward to seeing how these pilots progress over their first year and beyond.”

The VAA Early Support Innovation Fund will run from 2026–28, with independent evaluation by Oxford Brookes (the Institute for Public Care) to inform future national commissioning.