288 children in care across our two areas may have FASD.
Apply Peterborough's own 27% prevalence finding to the 646 children in care in Cambridgeshire and the 420 in Peterborough, and you get around 288 children.
Most of them have never been assessed for FASD. They should have been.
Before 18 years old, some move on to special guardians or adopters. More move on to Kinship Carers with or without ever being in care.
Kinship carers are often grandparents, aunts and older siblings who took a child in at short notice, with no training in FASD, no diagnosis to point to and no allowance to speak of. At the age of 18 the legal order binding them to their family ceases and the state assumes that they are independent and can function as such.
Every one of those children where social care has been involved becomes a care leaver or at least they transition to their post 18 lives. And that is exactly the point at which support thins out — just as the demands of adult life arrive.
All 18 year olds including care leavers with undiagnosed FASD are being asked to manage tenancies, benefits and appointments with an executive functioning profile nobody has ever explained to them. Too many are expected to do this as independent adults with no family network to fall back on.
Identifying FASD as a need is already supposed to be part of the system.
The statutory guidance Promoting the Health and Well-being of looked-after children says, at paragraph 44, that health assessments should “pay particular attention to health conditions that may be more prevalent in looked-after children (such as foetal alcohol syndrome or attachment difficulties) and which may otherwise have been misdiagnosed”.
The term the guidance uses is out of date. “Foetal alcohol syndrome” describes only the minority of cases with the recognised facial features. SIGN 156 replaced it with FASD in 2019, and NICE Quality Standard QS204 uses FASD too. But the duty is there in black and white, and it applies to every initial and review health assessment for a child in care. It has been so for 17 years.
Four things that Cambridgeshire and Peterborough could do that would change this, and none of them are expensive:
1. Do what paragraph 44 already asks: enquire about prenatal alcohol exposure at every initial and review health assessment and record the answer.
2. ensure that local assessment templates and training says FASD rather than foetal alcohol syndrome, in line with SIGN 156 and NICE QS204.
3. Offer more FASD-informed training to kinship carers, special guardians, foster carers and personal advisers and everyone working with Children & Young People.
4. Extend leaving-care support to 25 by default where FASD is suspected, not only where it is diagnosed.
If you are a kinship carer foster carer, or adopter in Peterborough or Cambridgeshire, our group is open to you: www.facebook.com/groups/1320037864718272
#FASDGrowsUp #EveryonePlaysAPart #KinshipCare #CareLeavers #FASD
These posts across September 2026 are only possible due the support of the National Organisation for FASD. In June 2026, the Charity published an in depth look at the cost of FASD in the UK. professional AI software was used to interrogate available national data so that a detailed report could be written about the impact of FASD to the UK.
That report can be found here. https://nationalfasd.org.uk/the-cost-of-inaction-on-fasd/
After a discussion about whether the same software could be used to drill down into locally available data and interesting set of information appeared for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough as well as another set for Hertfordshire where the National Organisation has its office. The following posts reflect the information gathered for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Please search my other posts / blogs throughout FASD Awareness month 2026 for a full picture of the current situation and needs in Peterborough & Cambridgeshire UK.
Brian Roberts
September 2026
