Evaluation of the Early Adoption Fund 2017

The Adoption Support Fund (ASF) was rolled out nationally in May 2015. It enables local authorities to make applications for funding for therapeutic support for adopted children. The aim of the ASF is to reduce the gap between adoptive children needing therapeutic services and those actually receiving them. The department currently makes significant investments in adoption support, £28m in 2017-18 with further increases every year in this Parliament. The purpose of this research is to provide an up-to-date assessment of the impact of the Adoption Support Fund in England on family and children outcomes. Since the introduction of the Fund there have been many important changes to the Fund and this evaluation aims to update the current evidence on the Fund building in evaluation of recent changes and options for the future operation of the Fund. We anticipate that this research is likely to be based on a multi-method approach, and will include the following three elements to answer the research questions: 1. Longitudinal research with adoptive families and their adopted children, to follow a cohort of families from assessment through to six months after completing their therapy, both quantitatively and qualitatively, to explore their experiences in greater depth. 2. Longitudinal qualitative research with local authorities and adoption support providers to understand how the ASF has impacted their experience and behaviour. 3. Case studies with launched RAAs and action research with the ASF regional pilots to understand their rollout and impact as they come on stream and go live; and, 4. Two qualitative studies to respond to emerging issues. Expressions of interest will be assessed against the following criteria: • Understanding the Department's requirements • Knowledge and experience of the adoption support market and market development • Experience of the methodologies to be used. Evidence of analysis of large datasets and a knowledge of child assessment instruments and their development. • Experience of working on high profile Government research projects working to tight deadlines and writing good quality reports with clear conclusions Expressions of interests submitted must be no more than 750 words - anything longer will be disregarded.