£456m Funding For Supporting The Wellbeing Of Children

The new Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls has set out a mission to drive up standards and improve the lives of every child in the country. He announced a total of £456 million for projects to support the wellbeing of children and families across the country, and a focus on play which enables children to have healthy, safe and happy childhood.

{mosimage}Addressing a conference of experts in children’s services, sponsored by the National Children’s Bureau (NCB), he said: “Our aspirations are straight forward and ambitious. Every child deserves to be safe and loved and have a healthy and happy childhood, free from harm. And every child should have the chance to make the most of their talents and fulfil their potential.”

He continued: “To do this, we must provide excellent universal services for all children and their families; be able to identify potential problems early, before things go wrong; and when children are at risk, do something quickly to help children and their families get back on track. Some commentators claim there has never been a worse time to be a child in this country. I reject this view.

“Of course we face real challenges, but this pessimism fails to recognise the new opportunities children have today, and it undermines the dedication of parents and the immense passion and commitment of many in schools and children’s services to give children the best possible chance in life.”

Supporting children, young people and families in the community is integral to helping all children, promoting excellence and closing the achievement gap in schools. Ed Balls said however that key challenges remained in tackling the attainment gap, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

There is also work to do in joining up services for children, particularly mental health services. Further improvements can also be made in intervening early and decisively with children at risk of truanting, poor behaviour before it escalates into offending behaviour.

To this end he announced:

• £396 million investment to continue the Children’s Fund over the next three years, supporting projects that specialise in early intervention and prevention, and are having a notable impact on school attendance. They are improving the skills and emotional wellbeing of parents to help them better support their children, and improving relationships between families and professionals
• £60 million over the next three years to support schools in working with mental health practitioners to improve the emotional wellbeing of pupils, and have mental health experts working in schools to identify problems and provide children and young people with support (some 10% of children are diagnosed with a mental health problem)
• A consultation on staying safe to support parents in striking the right balance between protecting their children and allowing them to learn and explore safely, without being wrapped up in cottonwool, as well as extending anti-bullying policies to children’s homes, extended school services, and youth groups
• Taking on dual responsibility for play with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to develop fun, safe, and effective children’s play

The key focus of the nationwide consultation to develop a new Children’s Plan to examine:

• Prevention – How universal and targeted services can work together better to head off problems before they start
• Personalisation – How services can tailor their support so that all children can reach their potential
• Positive childhood – The role of parents and various services in providing a happy, healthy and safe childhood
• Families – To consider the role families play in each phase and how we can support them.

Just last week Ed Balls set out plans to further drive up school standards for children, including £265 million to fund an extended schools subsidy over the next three years. This aims to ensure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds can benefit from extra out-of-hours tuition and after-school clubs in sport, music and drama.