Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Longitudinal Survey of Adoptive Parents, 2015-2017 is one of the elements of the evaluation of the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) commissioned by the Department for Education. The ASF is an important initiative introduced in 2015 aimed at enabling adopted children and their families to access therapeutic support. The approach to the evaluation was a mixed methods, outcome and process evaluation.

The aim of the survey was to learn about adoptive families’ experiences of using the Adoption Support Fund and to evaluate the impact of the therapeutic interventions that they have been able to access using the fund. During the application to the ASF parents were approached to complete the questionnaire. The baseline survey was open for 1 year. 7 months after the completion of the baseline survey parents were sent the follow-up survey to complete. A range of validated scales and other questions were used to measure child development, parent’s wellbeing and family functioning at baseline and at follow-up in order to investigate the level of need and change over time. The following scales and questions were used in the evaluation:

the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire;

the Brief Assessment Checklist;

the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale;

the Carer Questionnaire;

questions about aggressive behaviour;

questions providing background information about the child and the family.

More information about this evaluation programme can be found on the Gov.uk Evaluation of the Adoption Support Fund webpage.


Main Topics:

The main topics covered by this study are child behaviour, development and wellbeing, family functioning, parental efficacy, and parent-child attachment, and parental wellbeing.