Voluntary and Community Sector Prospectus

Edward Timpson Excerpts

Thursday 16th October 2014 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Edward Timpson)]

I am pleased to announce, together with my colleague the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for East Surrey (Sam Gyimah), who is the Minister responsible for early education and child care, that today we have published a national prospectus setting out the key activities we wish to fund at a national level through organisations working with children and their families.

We will invest up to £25 million in 2015-16 for grants awarded through the national prospectus programme. This investment matches the funding provided through the prospectus in 2014-15. It shows, in these tough financial times, the value we place on the good work many organisations have done as a result of the prospectus funding programme. This is work which we hope will continue to improve outcomes for some of our most vulnerable children.

As in previous years the funding awarded through the prospectus is part of a bigger funding picture. The prospectus therefore refers to a number of additional services and activities that we will procure outside the £25 million prospectus funding.

For the first time we have separately identified mental health as a theme in the prospectus in recognition of the significant role that improvements in this area have in supporting better outcomes for children and young people. The focus in the prospectus seeks to build on the work already under way through the special educational needs reforms and the Department of Health taskforce.

This year we have also decided to include within the prospectus a theme on online and telephone advice and support for families. Support for families is a cross-Government matter, with the Department for Work and Pensions taking a lead, but we have a strong interest in ensuring that parents can access information and services that will benefit their children, particularly where those children and families are vulnerable.

We hope to receive bids that can make a real difference to children and their families. We want to be able to use this work to inform and guide national policy under the following seven themes.

Theme one—Support the delivery of reform priorities around choice, quality and affordability in early education and child care.

Theme two—Support the delivery of special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms, specialist advice and support for specific SEND and encouraging innovative approaches to filling gaps in the market and the SEND reforms.

Theme three—Improve the identification of children’s mental health issues, their prevention, and the better commissioning of support and collaboration between agencies and services.

Theme four—Improve the early help provided to children with additional support needs; protect and support children at risk of harm including at risk through bullying.

Theme five—Drive change in the care system to raise expectations and outcomes for children in care and care leavers.

Theme six—Continue to improve the adoption system and ensure reforms are sustained, particularly through improvements to matching, post-adoption support, services for prospective adopters, support and challenge to the work force, and strengthening parental voice.

Theme Seven—Improve advice and support to families to promote resilience, support early intervention and to improve engagement with statutory services.

We are inviting applications from voluntary and community sector organisations, social enterprises and other organisations bidding on a “not for profit” basis. Funding will be available for one year from 1 April 2015. The grants programme application process opens today, and bids must be received by noon on 21 November 2014. The national prospectus and accompanying application form set out the details of the bidding process.

A copy of the national prospectus has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.