Childcare charities awarded lottery funding for early intervention projects

This is the first round of awards from the Big Lottery’s Improving Futures programme, which will make up to £26m available for projects for three to five years, which involve partnerships between voluntary sector and public services.

Each partnership will receive £900,000. Around 8,000 families will benefit from these awards made to 17 projects spread across the UK.

Former Sure Start director Naomi Eisenstadt, who helped design the programme, said, ‘What is really important about the Improving Futures programme is that it’s going to focus on children aged five- to ten-years-old, who are at the moment frequently being overlooked in terms of support.

‘The primary school age is a crucial stage in childhood development, when problems can still be corrected before they become too entrenched. If you can reach children in this age group, there is still a good chance of turning their lives around and giving them a better future. I am delighted that the Big Lottery Fund has made this commitment and I am sure it will make a real difference.’

The Pre-School Learning Alliance is leading the Family Pathways project, which has been awarded the funding to provide targeted support to 400 families in the London borough of Lewisham.

Empathy

The project, which includes a range of local partner organisations, including Croydon Voluntary Action, will introduce a Canadian programme, which helps children to develop empathy.

The Roots of Empathy programme will run in primary schools in Lewisham and Croydon and will focus on children from five- to ten-years-old, including those with anti-social or destructive behaviour, or who have witnessed or been involved in domestic violence or other family problems.

It involves bringing in a parent and infant to join in with primary school classes on a regular basis for nine months, giving children the chance to support the infant’s development.

Val Pope, executive manager of the Alliance’s Lewisham Sub-Committee, and programme leader said, ‘This is a fantastic opportunity to really affect the lives of children both now and in the future.

‘This innovative approach develops empathy in children, which not only reduces aggression and bullying in school, but also develops understanding of loving, nurturing parenting in children who may never have experienced it themselves.’

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, added, ‘We are absolutely delighted to be involved in this initiative. It is critical that we do all we possibly can to break the cycle of social disadvantage and aggression in our communities.’

The Roots of Empathy programme was founded by Canadian educator and child advocate Mary Gordon in 1996 and has had a significant effect in reducing levels of aggression among schoolchildren while raising their social and emotional competence and increasing empathy. It has had similar success in New Zealand, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man.

4Children has been awarded a grant of £900,000 to run a three-year project with Enfield Council and local charity Enfield Parents & Children.

Outreach workers will be recruited to identify families living in the borough’s Somali and Turkish communities in the most deprived areas, who have multiple and complex needs.

The targeted families will be able to plan their own support programme and choose from a range of courses and activities, including parenting classes and specialist support for parents with children with ADHD and autism, and practical courses, such as money management and cooking. They will also be offered access to after-school clubs.

The project will employ six full-time staff who will start by April. It will also hope to take on volunteers from the community.

4Children said it was likely that some of the families would be among the 120,000 troubled families that the Government has said it wants to target in the initiative set up last year by David Cameron.

Charles Ellis, deputy chief executive of 4Children, said, ‘4Children are delighted to be able to announce the launch of this new project in partnership with Enfield Council and Enfield Parents & Children. Families tell us how they often struggle to find the help they need and can be overwhelmed by the number of professionals who respond to the symptoms of their problems, not the underpinning causes.
 
‘The Enfield Family Turnaround Project will take a holistic whole family approach to focus on changing behaviour, with a clear contract with families to do all they can to turn their situation around to provide the loving, caring environment their children need. This means working with families to get a grip on the issues, identifying what they need to do to function more effectively and the support they need to do it.'

Dee Eimer, director of Enfield Parents & Children, said, ‘I’m so excited about this project as it will enable us as a local organisation, together with the experience of 4Children and support from Enfield Council, to work alongside struggling families on early intervention programmes to enable them to increase the future success of their children.’

The 17 projects awarded grants in the first round of funding are:

• Belfast, Tackling Domestic Violence
• Carmarthenshire, Securing Futures
• Camden, Camden Futures
• Cardiff, Eleri
• Cheshire, Let’s Improve Our Future Together (L I F T)
• Croydon, Croydon Family Power: Giving Children a Head Start
• Dundee, Dundee Early Intervention Team
• Enfield, Enfield Family Turnaround Project
• Hertfordshire, One Herts-One Family
• Inverclyde, Nurturing Inverclyde
• Lewisham, Family Pathways
• Manchester, BIG Manchester
• Midlothian, Sure Start’s Empowering Families
• North and South Tyneside, Tyne Gateway Initiative
• Sunderland, The Neighbourhood Alliance
• Wandsworth, Brighter Futures
• Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton Improving Futures