Improving life chances for children and young people

Vulnerable children, young people and their families will benefit from substantial new investments, as part of the Government's extensive, cross-departmental programme to tackle child poverty and social exclusion.

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced today new money for three initiatives as part of the Spending Review 2000, by 2003-04:

a new Children's Fund, worth £100 million in 2001-02, £150 million in 2002-03 and £200 million in 2003-04, with a strong emphasis on voluntary sector delivery, to ensure that vulnerable young people make the transition safely to adulthood;
new resources to fund the roll-out of the Connexions personal adviser service and complementary services to support 13-19 year olds to stay in education and avoid truancy; and
an extra £315 million by 2003-04 for the Sure Start scheme which aims to improve the life chances of pre-school children to break the cycle of disadvantage.

The Children's Fund - will fund services to identify children and young people who are showing early signs of difficulty and provide them and their families with the support they need to get back on track. The aim is to prevent children falling into drug abuse, truancy, exclusion, unemployment and crime, as well as raising aspirations and preventing under-achievement.

The majority of the Fund will be targeted at preventive work with children (primarily in the 5 to 13 age group) and their families, helping them before they hit a crisis. The fund will work with local authority level partnerships and others, with a strong emphasis on voluntary sector delivery.

£70 million of the Fund over 3 years will be distributed directly to local community groups through a network of local funds, as announced in the Budget. The network of local funds will be administered by the voluntary sector itself, for children of all ages, and focus on helping local and community groups to provide local solutions to the problem of child poverty. It will include a strong emphasis on children and young people's own aspirations and views.

Connexions - is a personal adviser service to support 13 to 19 year olds to stay in education or undertake training. This initiative aims to raise levels of educational achievement and help prevent adverse outcomes such as truancy and crime.

The progressive introduction of Connexions will be co-ordinated with expansion of key services for vulnerable young people, including mental health services, supported housing and drug treatment.

Sure Start - New money for Sure Start, the radical programme of services for very young children, means that now a third of poor children in England will have access to extra help. Sure Start improves the life chances of very young children by ensuring that they are ready to learn when they get to school, and so break the cycle of disadvantage.

For the Sure Start scheme, today's announcement means:

a major increase in Sure Start expenditure of £184 million a year in 2000-01 to almost £500 million a year in 2003-04;
a major geographical expansion of Sure Start, doubling the number of programmes from 250 to at least 500 by 2004. The expanded Sure Start will reach a third of poor children under four years old in England. Some of the new programmes will be geographically small in order to target pockets of deprivation, for example in rural areas.

In return for this investment, each programme will deliver measurable improvements in local children's social and emotional development, health and ability to learn, as well as a strengthening of families and communities.

While Sure Start targets money at the most deprived areas, the Government is keen to apply the lessons from Sure Start more widely across the country. So the Government has decided to develop targets for all mainstream services, nationwide, for children aged nought to five.

Notes for editors

1. The Following Table summarises the main new funding:

£ million

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

Children's Fund

of which, Local Network

100

150

200

Sure Start

265

315

This table shows additions to the 2001-02 plans published at the time of Budget 2000.

2. Children's Fund

The Social Exclusion Unit's Policy Action Team (PAT) on Young People highlighted the need for improved preventive services for young people; and advocated increased support for families and a new preventive budget to promote effective cross-cutting interventions for young people facing the most acute risks. The Children's Fund builds on this.

The Fund includes the Chancellor's proposal for a local network of Children's Funds announced in Budget 2000. But this is the first time that new resources have been announced.

Funds will roll out gradually from next year. For the £70 million to be distributed directly to local communities the aim is for networks of local funds to cover all of England by 2003-4.

The type of programmes the Fund would finance might include specialist schemes attached to schools to help children and their parents overcome difficulties and get the help they need, home/school partnerships, and the continuation of schemes like On Track and the youth inclusion projects.

3. Connexions

Following on from the White Paper, Learning to Succeed, and the Social Exclusion Unit report Bridging the Gap, Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett unveiled Connexions in February 2000. It will provide a radical new approach to guiding and supporting all young people through their teenage years and in their transition to adulthood and working life.

The new Service will be delivered primarily through a network of Personal Advisers linking in with specialist support services. They will be drawn together from a range of existing public, private, voluntary and community sector organisations, and build on best practice.

The key aim of the service will be to enable all young people to participate effectively in appropriate learning - whether in school, FE college, training provider or other community setting - by raising the aspirations so that they reach their full potential.

4. Sure Start

Sure Start programmes are based on international and UK evidence that the biggest gains are in interventions for young children, particularly in terms of health, educational and social development, and in the support of strong families and communities.

In the last Spending Review, the Government set aside resources for 250 local programmes to be up and running by March 2002, supporting about 187,000 children.

The new 250 Sure Start areas will be chosen, like the first 250, using a measure of deprivation, and partnerships from each area will be invited to put forward proposals.

In keeping with its cross-cutting role, responsibility for Sure Start is shared. Yvette Cooper, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health, is the Minister for Sure Start; and David Blunkett, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, speaks for Sure Start in the Cabinet.