Oldham Children's Fund

The Children's Fund was launched in November 2000 as part of the government's commitment to tackle disadvantage among children and young people. Oldham was one of the first wave of Children’s Fund and was built on the good practice of the On track initiative. The programme aims to identify at an early stage children and young people at risk of social exclusion, and make sure they receive the help and support they need to achieve their potential.

The Children's Fund provides a responsive approach to developing services that address the difficulties faced by some children and their families. It encourages voluntary organisations, community and faith groups to work in partnership with local statutory agencies, and children, young people and their families, to deliver high-quality preventative services to meet the needs of communities.

The Children's Fund has three underlying principles:

Prevention
To address the gap in preventative services for children and young people at risk of social exclusion, by providing increased and better coordinated preventative services for 5-13-year-olds and their families
Partnership
To take responsibility at local level for the delivery of the Children's Fund plan, involving partners from the statutory and voluntary sectors, community and faith groups, and ensuring that the views of children and young people are represented
Participation
The voices of children and young people are at the heart of the Children's Fund, with children and young people being involved in the design, operation and evaluation of the programme

Outcomes and objectives

The original outcomes envisaged by the Children's Fund were that children would grow up:

Healthy
Emotionally secure and confident
Having succeeded at school
Having stayed out of trouble
Living in a safe place
Having the opportunity to succeed in achieving their dreams

These outcomes sit well with the five outcomes of Every Child Matters, and the work of the Children's Fund will make a significant contribution to the Every Child Matters agenda.

The specific objectives of the Children's Fund are as follows:

To promote attendance in school by 5-13-year-olds
To achieve improved educational performance among 5-13-year-olds
To ensure fewer young people aged 10-13 commit crime and fewer children aged 5-13 are victims of crime
To reduce child health inequalities
To ensure children, young people and their families feel the services are accessible
To develop services which are experienced as effective
To involve families in building the community's capacity to sustain the programme and thereby create pathways out of poverty

On Track

On Track is a research-based, preventative, crime reduction programme aimed at developing multi-agency partnerships and delivering a range of services to children aged 4-12 and their families. The programme was established in 24 areas of England and Wales. On Track has subsequently been incorporated into the Children's Fund and, as such, effective On Track services will be considered for migration into children's trusts alongside other Children's Fund services. The Oldham On track area operates in the Holts, Alt and Roundthorn area.

Resourcing the Children's Fund

Between 2005 and 2008, £411.5m has been allocated to the Children's Fund nationally. By the end of the spending review period, Children's Fund partnerships will have received over £780m in the years 2003-08. This equates to an average of £156m each year.

In July 2007, the Government announced the extension of the Children's Fund for a further three years - until 2011 - with provision at the same cash levels as for 2007-08, and money routed through local authorities. Oldham with therefore receive a million pound year on year to support early intervention and prevention work.

What is the future for the Children's Fund?

From April 2008, the Children's Fund will be mainstreamed into children's trust arrangements. Significant resource has been allocated to the Children's Fund over the life of the programme, and government is keen to see lasting benefit for children and young people from this investment.

How will the funding be distributed from April 2008?

Funding will be distributed to local authorities and pooled with other funding to form a new area-based grant for improving a wide range of outcomes, including those for children and young people. The new area-based grant is not ring-fenced, but resources included in it will remain identifiable and transparent.

What is the link between Children's Fund outcomes and the LA performance targets?

Preventative services can contribute to achieving future outcome targets which, ultimately, local authority performance will be measured against. Projects formerly funded via the Children’s Fund (now funded via the Area Based Grant) will be linked with the LA performance targets and will be able to demonstrate how they are working at a preventative level to contribute to the targets.

What has the Children's Fund achieved?

As outlined in the 'Aiming High for Children: Supporting Families' report (published March 2007), the Children's Fund has helped:

To develop responsive, specialist support tailored to the individual needs of the child and family
To achieve positive outcomes with a range of children and parents; impacting on school attendance, behaviour, self-esteem, and relationships
To improve skills, confidence and emotional well-being for parents
To improve relationships and communication between families and professionals

In 2005 – 2006 a large research study of the Oldham Children’s Fund Programme was undertaken in partnership with Research Data services to see if the Children’s Fund was meeting its aims and objectives by meeting the needs of children, young people and families. The research looked at impacts under the five Every Child Matters outcomes.

The main impacts of the programme can be viewed here

Please contact the Project Development Manager from the Commissioning Team on 0161 770 3463 if you have further queries regarding Oldham Children’s Fund and the transition of the Children’s Fund funding and activities in relation to the Area Based Grant and the Local Area Agreement targets