Press release: Government pledge £28 million to support children and young people

Ten projects are receiving investment as part of the second round of the £80 million Life Chances Fund and will focus on helping young people into employment by providing education and training. The projects will also help reduce the number of days young people spend in care and help vulnerable children get prepared for school.

The projects are Social Impact Bonds, meaning Social Investors provide projects with up front funding and are reimbursed by government only when projects meet agreed results.

The Government’s contribution is in addition to funding from local authorities who will provide a combined £83 million to the successful projects.

Minister for Sport and Civil Society, Tracey Crouch, said:

The Life Chances Fund is helping transform lives across the country and I am looking forward to seeing how these fantastic projects use this funding to benefit children and young people, teaching them valuable life skills.

Examples of the projects that will receive funding are:

Sheffield City Council will receive £19,294,766, the largest amount of money from the Life Chances fund. This will set up a local projects to help tackle a range of issues from mental health and wellbeing to homelessness and youth unemployment.

Harrow Council will be given £1,895,000 for its flexible therapeutic solution that offers 24/7 accessibility to support. This will enable young people to plan, coordinate and accelerate progress towards their goals. It will target vulnerable young people aged between 10 and 18, both in care and outside.

Think Forward will be granted £683,620 to implement its Move Forward programme which supports young people aged 14-25 with mild to moderate learning disabilities to develop the aspirations, qualifications and skills they need to realise their potential and gain paid employment.

The Life Chances Fund is being delivered on behalf of DCMS by the Big Lottery Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

The £80m Life Chances Fund launched in July 2016 with the objective of tackling entrenched social issues and helping those people in society who face the most significant barriers to leading happy and productive lives.

The fund is structured around six key themes: drug and alcohol dependency, children’s services, early years, young people, older people’s services, and healthy lives.

To date, a total of £45,152,177 of Life Chances Fund money has been committed across 20 projects, with more funding to be announced in the summer.

The grantees, the money they will receive and the project they will deliver, are listed below:

Sheffield City Council: will receive £19,294,766. This aims to maximise the impact of public spending across the city and achieve better social projects for residents. It will transform the way public services are delivered in Sheffield.

Future’s Advice – Nottinghamshire: will receive £891,660 to offer a bespoke package of support and training to young people including: individual coaching, group work and peer support, and personal budget management, to reduce the proportion that are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Norfolk County Council: will receive £1,238,512 to reduce the number of days children and young people spend in care. This will generate savings for the council and achieve improvements to the children’s school attendance, educational attainment and wellbeing.

Gloucestershire Positive Behavioural Support Service: will receive £360,000 for its positive behavioural support service which aims to avoid the poor outcomes and high costs associated with children and young people with learning disabilities in residential care settings.

Harrow Council: will receive £1,895,000 for its The Adolescent Collaborative Multi-Channel which offers flexible therapeutic support through a new mobile app with 24/7 accessibility enabling young people to plan, coordinate and accelerate progress towards their goals. It will target vulnerable young people aged between 10 and 18, both in care and outside.

London Borough of Barking & Dagenham: will receive up to £540,000 to reduce the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), through the provision of an intensive two-year one-to-one coaching programme delivered to young people in school years 10-12. The programme will target those hardest to reach and most at risk of becoming NEET.

Innovation Unit – Doncaster: will receive £1,795,810 to address poor school attendance and education attainment among 11 to 16 year olds who have been identified as having low social mobility and are at risk of becoming NEET.

The Skill Mill – locations across the north: will receive £1,793,302 to help get ex-offenders aged 16 – 18 into paid labour opportunities.

Family Lives – Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea: will receive £252,900 to narrow the gap in school readiness between vulnerable children and their better off peers by introducing the Parent Child Home Program, an American evidence-based programme targeted at low income and vulnerable families.

Think Forward – Islington, Kent and Surrey: will receive £683,620 for its Move Forward programme which will support young people aged 14-25 with mild to moderate learning disabilities to develop the aspirations, qualifications and skills they need to realise their potential and gain paid employment. The project includes the engagement of parents and staff at mainstream and special schools and colleges and Local Authorities. It will provide holistic and personalised 1:1 coaching support and participants will gain financial, social and wellbeing benefits associated with improved self-esteem and employment.