About Children’s Fund Northamptonshire

Mission
Context
Objective
Sub Objectives
Partnership
Funding:
Themes
Evaluation

Mission:
The Children's Fund is intended to provide services for children (aged 5 - 13 years) identified as being at risk of social exclusion.

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Context:
The Children’s Funds, launched in November 2000 in 3 waves, is a central part of the Government’s Agenda for children and families and aims to make a real difference to the lives of children and families at risk of social exclusion. The Children’s Fund is the link between Sure Starts/Children’s Centre’s 0-4 years and Connexions 13 – 19 years.

The Children’s Fund is co-ordinated within the Department for Education and Skills

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To provide additional resources over and above those provided through mainstream statutory funding, specific programmes and through specific earmarked funding streams. It should engage and support voluntary and community organisations in playing an active part and should enable the full range of services to work together to help children overcome poverty and disadvantage.

The key objectives of the Fund are:

1. To ensure that in each area there is an agreed programme of effective interventions that pick up on early signs of difficulty, identify needs and introduce children and young people and their families to appropriate services, ensuring:

• close and co-operative working between all local relevant agencies
• clear responsibility for the management of each child’s or family’s involvement
• services are sufficiently flexible and accessible to ensure informal and self referrals.

2. To ensure that children and young people who have experienced early signs of difficulties receive appropriate services in order to gain maximum life-chance benefits from educational opportunities, health care and social care to ensure good outcomes.

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  Sub - Objectives:
In addition there are seven sub-objectives for the fund. These are:

Sub-objective One
To promote attendance in the schools attended by the majority of the 5 – 13 year olds living in the area.

Sub-objective Two
To achieve overall improved educational performance among children and young people aged 5 – 13

Sub-objective Three
To ensure that fewer young people aged between 10 and 13 commit crime and fewer children between 5 and 13 are victims of crime.

Sub-objective Four
To reduce child health inequalities among those children and young people aged 5 – 13 who live within the area.

Sub-objective Five
To ensure that children, young people, their families and local people feel that the preventive services being developed through the partnerships are accessible

Sub-objective Six
To develop services which are experienced as effective by individual and clusters of children, young people and families commonly excluded from gaining the benefits of public services that are intended to support children and young people at risk of social exclusion from achieving their potential.

Sub-objective Seven
To involve families in building the community’s capacity to sustain the programme and thereby create pathways out of poverty.

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Partnership:

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  Themes:
The Children’s Fund in Northamptonshire is focused on 4 Themes. The Themes inevitably overlap but all the Projects and Services are attempting to reduce known risk factors associated with social exclusion.

PARTICIPATION

Northamptonshire Children’s Fund are encouraging Parents and Children and Young People Participation in interventions.

Why have children & Young People Participation?

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (to which the UK is a signatory) states that children and young people have a right to say what they think about matters that affect them and a right to have those views taken seriously.

The Government wants children and young people to have more opportunities to get involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of the services that they use. Through influencing the services they receive, children and young people will feel they are heard and valued, and able to make a real difference. In effect, they will be contributing to and benefiting from their local community by having a stake in it, as good participation opportunities produce more confident and resilient young people.

Why have parents participation?

We have home/school support workers in twenty one schools countywide providing support for children and their families in school. This includes, ensuring regular school attendance, improved school attainment and an increase in children & young people self esteem. In order for such interventions to work, involvement from families is paramount. However, in order to obtain parents enthusiasm and support, they first need to feel part of the intervention and that the service is for them and their children.

What has been happening?

Action taken in projects to involve parents and children and young people in participation involve a range of approaches. These include being consulted about what services are needed and how they are developed, delivered and evaluated; providing parent support groups; developing youth forums and having young people participate on interview panels. Children and young people participate in the design of Northamptonshire Children’s Fund web page.

In addition, Barry Percy-Smith, SOLAR has been commissioned to carry out action inquiry with children and young people, whilst parents are now attending practitioners’ action inquiry groups. See Evaluation for more information.

SUPPORTING FAMILIES

Working with children and families so that children can enjoy being children and parents can enjoy being parents. Examples: parent drop ins; help with parental supervision; behaviour management; leisure pursuits.

HOME SCHOOL SUPPORT

These services are designed to encourage better school attendance and therefore provide a chance for improved achievement. At the forefront is also the need to develop better relationships between schools and parents so that a child’s education and life chances become a partnership that includes the child, the parent and the school.

CRIME PREVENTION

In 2002 it was decreed that at least 25% of Children’s Fund money had to be spent on projects that fitted a crime ’menu’ that the Minister at that time, John Denham MP, had chosen. These projects had to be agreed to by the county Youth Offending Services. The Children’s Fund Northamptonshire Crime Prevention Strategy is to develop and deliver targeted services that address the known risk factors associated with future anti-social and offending behaviour. It could, of course, be argued that all our projects address similar risk factors.

Please see our Themes section for more detailed information on our theme areas, and the projects and services within them.

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Evaluation:
MONITORING AND EVALUATION

In order to find out about the effectiveness of our interventions and explore what works in prevention we need to monitor and evaluate the ‘who, what, where and how’. This learning can be beneficial to projects and their workers who can use it ensure they are reaching the children and families who need them, and to reflect on and modify their practice and the services they provide. Children and their families should benefit from continuing improvements to their services, and it will also provide local government, services and voluntary organisations with evidence for effective prevention which will be useful in shaping policy and future services. The three main approaches used by the Children’s Fund Northamptonshire to achieve these aims are quarterly monitoring, action inquiry groups and impact evaluation. To learn more about these methods, click here

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